marcb  6am 


By 

Trcdcric 

Huthor  of 
In  tb«  Oalley,  OK  Damnation  of  tlwron  Ulaw,  €tc. 


new  Vork 
D.  Hpplcton  and  Company 


COPYRIGHT,  1896, 
BY  D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


n 


TO   OUR   FRIEND 

JULIA       £.,_ 

T 


248946 


MARCH  HARES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ON  the  morning  of  his  thirtieth  birthday, 
Mr.  David  Mosscrop  lounged  against  the  low 
stone  parapet  of  Westminster  Bridge,  and  sur 
veyed  at  length  the  unflagging  procession  of 
his  fellow-creatures  plodding  past  him  north 
ward  into  the  polite  half  of  London  town. 

He  had  come  upon  the  bridge  in  a  melan 
choly  frame  of  mind,  and  had  paused  first  of 
all  gloomily  to  look  down  at  the  water.  His 
thoughts  were  a  burden  to  him,  and  his  head 
ached  viciously.  This  was  no  new  experience 
of  a  morning,  worse  luck ;  he  had  grown  ac 
customed  to  these  evil  opening  hours  of  de 
pression  and  nausea.  The  fact  that  it  was  his 
birthday,  however,  gave  uncomfortable  point 
to  his  reflections.  He  had  actually  crossed 


Hares. 


the  threshold  of  the  thirties,  and  he  came  into 
the  presence  of  this  new  lustrum  worse  than 
empty-handed.  He  had  done  none  of  the 
great  things  which  his  youth  had  promised. 
He  had  not  even  found  his  way  into  helpful 
and  cleanly  company.  The  memory  of  the 
people  with  whom  he  spent  his  time  nowadays 
— in  particular,  the  recollection  of  the  wastrels 
and  fools  with  whom  he  had  started  out  yes 
terday  to  celebrate  the  eve  of  his  anniversary 
— made  him  sick.  He  stared  down  at  the 
slowly-moving  flood,  and  asked  himself  angrily 
why  a  man  of  thirty  who  had  learned  nothing 
worth  learning,  achieved  nothing  worth  the 
doing ;  who  didn't  even  know  enough  to  keep 
sober  over-night,  should  not  be  thrown  like 
garbage  into  the  river. 

The  impulse  to  jump  over  the  parapet 
hung  somewhere  very  close  to  the  grasp  of  his 
consciousness.  His  mind  almost  touched  it  as 
his  eyes  dwelt  upon  the  broad,  opaque  mass  of 
shifting  drab  waters.  He  said  to  himself  that 
he  had  never  before  been  so  near  the  possibility 
of  deliberate  suicide  as  he  was  at  this  moment. 


March  Hares.  3 

He  did  not  allow  the  notion  to  take  any  more 
definite  shape,  but  mused  for  a  while  upon  the 
fact  of  its  lying  there,  vaguely  formless  at  the 
hack  of  his  brain,  ready  to  leap  into  being  at 
his  will.  Of  course,  he  would  not  give  the 
word :  it  was  merely  interesting  to  think  that 
he  was  in  the  same  street,  so  to  speak,  with 
the  spirit  of  self-murder. 

After  a  little,  the  effect  of  this  steadily 
drifting  body  of  water  seemed  to  soothe  his 
vision.  He  grew  less  conscious  of  mental  dis 
turbance  and  physical  disgust  alike.  Then  he 
stood  up,  yawned,  and  glanced  at  the  big 
clock-tower,  where  the  laggard  hands  still  clung 
to  the  unreasonable  neighbourhood  of  seven 
o'clock.  For  some  reason,  he  felt  much  better. 
The  sensation  was  very  welcome.  He  drew  a 
long  breath  of  satisfaction,  and,  leaning  with 
his  back  to  the  stonework,  fell  to  watching 
the  people  go  past.  By  a  sudden  revulsion  of 
mood,  he  discovered  all  at  once  that  the  excess 
of  the  night  was  now  offering  him  compensa 
tions.  His  brain  was  extremely  clear,  and, 
now  that  the  lees  of  drink  were  gone,  served 


March  Hares. 


him  with  an  eager  and  almost  fluttering  acute- 
ness  which  it  was  pleasant  to  follow. 

He  noted  with  minute  attention  the  vary 
ing  types  of  workmen,  shopgirls,  clerks,  and 
salesmen  as  they  trooped  by  in  the  throng, 
and  found  himself  devoting  to  each  some  ap 
propriate  mental  comment,  some  wondering 
guess  into  their  history,  or  some  flash  of  specu 
lation  as  to  their  future.  The  instantaneous 
play  of  his  fancy  among  these  flitting  items 
brought  great  diversion.  He  rollicked  in  it — 
picking  out  as  they  trudged  along  side  by  side 
the  book-keeper  who  was  probably  short  in 
his  accounts,  the  waiter  who  had  been  backing 
the  wrong  horses,  the  barmaid  with  the 
seraph's  face  who  at  luncheon  time  would  be 
listening  unmoved  to  conversation  from  City 
men  fit  to  revolt  a  dock  labourer.  It  was  in 
deed  as  good  as  a  play,  this  marvellous  aggre 
gation  of  human  dramatic  possibilities  surging 
tirelessly  before  him.  He  wondered  that  he 
had  never  thought  of  seeing  it  before. 

From  amusing  details  his  mind  lifted  itself 
to  larger  conceptions.  He  thought  of  the 


Ma/rch  Hares.  5 

mystery  of  London's  vast  economy ;  of  all  its 
millions  playing  dumbly,  uninstructedly,  al 
most  like  automata,  their  appointed  parts  in 
the  strange  machinery  by  which  so  many 
droves  of  butchers'  cattle,  so  many  thousands 
of  tons  of  food  and  trucks  of  clothing  and 
coals  and  oil  were  brought  in  daily,  and  Baby 
lon's  produce  was  sent  out  again  in  balancing 
repayment.  The  miracle  of  these  giant  scales 
being  always  kept  even,  of  London's  ever- 
craving  belly  and  the  country's  never-failing 
response,  loomed  upon  his  imagination.  Then, 
stifling  another  yawn,  it  occurred  to  him  that 
a  brain  capable  of  such  flights  deserved  a  bet 
ter  fate  than  to  be  banged  out  by  a  dirty  tide 
against  some  slime-stained  wharf-pile  down 
the  river.  Yes,  and  it  merited  a  nobler  lot  in 
life,  too,  than  that  of  being  nightly  drenched 
with  poisonous  drink.  Decidedly  he  would 
forswear  sack,  and  live  cleanly. 

The  hour  struck  in  the  clock-tower.  The 
boom  of  the  great  bell  swelled  hopefully  upon 
his  hearing.  The  chime  of  the  preceding 
quarter  had  saddened  him,  because  he  heard 


March  Hcvres. 


in  it  the  knell  of  thirty  wasted  years.  The 
louder  resonance  now  bore  a  different  mean 
ing.  A  birthday  exposed  a  new  leaf  as  well  as 
turned  down  an  old  one.  The  twenties  were 
behind  him,  and  undoubtedly  they  were  not 
nice.  Very  well ;  he  turned  his  back  upon 
them.  The  thirties  were  all  before  him  ;  and, 
as  Big  Ben  thundered  forth  its  deep -voiced 
clamour,  he  straightened  himself,  and  turned 
to  look  them  confidently  in  the  face. 

His  eyes  fell  upon  the  figure  of  a  young 
woman,  advancing  in  a  little  eddy  of  isolation 
from  the  throng,  a  dozen  feet  away.  Even  on 
the  instant  he  was  conscious  of  a  feeling  that 
his  gaze  had  not  distinguished  her  from  the 
others  by  mere  chance;  it  was,  indeed,  as  if 
there  were  no  others.  In  the  concentrated 
scrutiny  which  he  found  himself  bending 
upon  her,  there  was  a  sense  of  compulsion. 
His  perceptions  raced  to  meet  and  envelop 
her. 

She  was  almost  tall,  and  in  carriage  made 
the  most  of  her  inches.  She  had  much  yellow 
hair  of  a  noticeable  sort,  pale  flaxen  in  bulk 


March  Ha/i*es. 


but  picked  with  lemon  in  its  lights,  about  her 
brows.  He  thought  that  it  was  dyed,  and  in 
the  same  breath  knew  better.  He  mastered 
the  effect  of  her  fine  face — with  its  regular 
contour,  its  self-conscious  eyes,  its  dainty  rose- 
leaf  of  a  chin  thrust  reliantly  forth  above  a 
broad,  white  throat — all  in  some  unnamed  frac 
tion  of  a  second. 

The  impression  of  her  filled  every  corner 
of  his  mind.  He  tried  to  think  about  who 
and  what  she  was,  and  only  built  up  scaffold 
ings  of  conjecture  to  knock  them  down  again. 
She  was  a  girl  who  tried  on  mantles  and 
frocks  in  some  big  Regent  Street  place :  no, 
the  lack  of  dignity  in  such  an  avocation  would 
be  impossible  to  one  who  carried  her  chin  so 
high.  A  woman  journalist?  No,  she  was  too 
pretty  for  that.  What  was  she — type- writer, 
restaurant- waitress,  saleswoman?  No,  these 
all  wore  black,  with  white  collar  and  wrist 
bands  ;  and  her  apparel  was  of  an  almost  flar 
ing  order.  Her  large-sleeved  bodice  of  flow 
ered  blue  silk,  snug  to  the  belted  waist,  sug 
gested  Henley  rather  than  the  high  road  out 


8  March  Hares. 


of  squalid  Lambeth.  Her  straw  sailor-hat, 
jauntily  borne  on  the  primrose  fluff  and  coils 
of  hair,  belonged,  too,  not  a  mile  lower  on  the 
river  than  Teddington.  She  should  by  rights 
have  a  racquet  in  her  hand,  and  be  moving 
along  over  the  close-shaved  lawn  of  Rane- 
lagh's  park,  on  a  hazy,  languid  summer  after 
noon.  What  on  earth  was  she  doing  on  West 
minster  Bridge,  at  this  ridiculous  hour,  in  this 
dismal  company  ? 

Then  speculation  died  abruptly.  She  was 
close  to  him  now,  and  he  recognized  her.  She 
was  a  young  woman  whom  he  had  seen  in  the 
British  Museum  reading-room  a  score  of  times. 
Her  face  was  entirely  familiar  to  him.  Only 
the  other  day  he  had  got  down  for  her,  from 
the  county-histories  shelves,  two  ponderous 
volumes  which  she  had  seemed  unable  to  man 
age  by  herself.  She  had  thanked  him  with  a 
glance  and  a  pleasant  nod.  He  seemed  to  re 
call  in  that  glance  a  tacit  admission  that  they 
were  old  acquaintances  by  sight.  He  looked 
her  square  in  the  eye,  meanwhile,  the  inner 
muscles  of  his  face  preparing  and  holding  in 


March  Hares.  9 

readiness  a  smile  in  case  she  gave  a  sign  of  re 
membering  him. 

For  a  moment  it  appeared  that  she  was 
passing  without  recognition.  He  had  the 
presence  of  mind  to  feel  that  this  was  a  gross 
and  inexcusable  mischance.  His  feet  instinc 
tively  poised  themselves  to  follow  her,  as  if  it 
were  for  this,  and  this  only,  that  they  had  tar 
ried  so  long  on  the  bridge. 

Before  he  could  take  a  step,  however,  she 
had  halted,  and,  in  a  wavering  fashion,  moved 
sidelong  out  of  the  main  current  of  pedestrian- 
ism.  She  stood  irresolutely  by  the  parapet  for 
a  few  seconds,  with  a  pretence  of  being  inter 
ested  in  the  view  of  the  river  and  the  prim 
stretch  of  Parliamentary  architecture  on  its 
right  bank.  Then,  with  a  little  shrug  of  de 
cision,  she  turned  to  him. 

"  It  is  a  fine  morning,"  she  said. 

He  had  stepped  to  her  side,  and  he  bent 
upon  her  now  the  smile  which  had  so  nearly 
gone  a-begging.  "  I  was  afraid  you  hadn't 
noticed  me — and  I  had  quite  resolved  to  go 
after  you." 


10  Mar  cli  Hares. 

She  flashed  inquiry  into  his  face,  then  let 
her  glance  wander  vaguely  off  again.  "  Oh,  I 
saw  you  well  enough,"  she  confessed,  with  a 
curious  intermingling  of  hesitation  and  bold 
ness  ;  "  but  at  first  I  wasn't  going  to  pretend 
I  did.  In  fact,  I  don't  in  the  least  know  why 
I  did  stop.  Or,  rather,  I  do  know,  but  you 
don't,  and  you  never  will.  That  is  to  say,  / 
shan't  tell  you ! " 

"  Oh,  but  I  do  know,"  he  answered  genial 
ly.  "  How  should  you  imagine  me  so  deficient 
in  discernment  ?  Only — only,  I  think  I  won't 
tell  either." 

She  looked  at  him  again  with  a  kind  of 
startled  intentness,  and  parted  her  lips  as  if  to 
speak.  He  fancied  that  he  caught  in  this  gaze 
the  suggestion  of  a  painful  and  humbled  diffi 
dence.  But  then  she  tossed  her  head  with  a 
saucy  air  and  smiled  archly.  "  What  a  tre 
mendous  secret  we  shall  carry  to  our  graves ! " 
she  laughed.  "  Tell  me,  do  you  sleep  on  the 
bridge  ?  One  hears  such  remarkable  stories, 
you  know,  about  the  readers  at  the  Museum." 

He  regarded  her  with  pleasure  beaming  in 


March  Hares.  11 

his  eyes.  "  No,  I  go  entirely  without  sleep," 
he  replied,  with  gravity,  "  and  walk  about  the 
streets  turning  a  single  idea  for  ever  in  my 
mind ;  and  every  morning  at  daybreak — oh, 
this  has  gone  on  for  years  now — I  come  here 
to  watch  for  the  beautiful  girl  with  the  yellow 
hair  who  some  time  is  to  come  up  to  me  and 
remark,  'It  is  a  fine  morning.'  A  fortune 
teller  told  me,  ever  so  long  ago,  that  this  was 
what  I  must  do,  and  I've  never  had  a  moment's 
rest  since." 

"  You  must  be  very  tired,"  she  commented, 
"  and  a  good  deal  mixed  in  your  mind,  too, 
especially  since  yellow  hair  has  come  so  much 
into  fashion.  And  did  the  fortune-teller  men 
tion  what  was  to  happen  after  the — the  beau 
tiful  lady  had  really  appeared  ?  " 

"  Ah,  that  is  another  of  my  secrets ! "  he 
cried,  delightedly. 

They  had  begun  to  stroll  together  toward 
the  clock-tower.  The  throng  bustling  heed 
lessly  past  with  hurried  steps  gave  them  an 
added  sense  of  detachment  and  companion 
ship.  They  kept  close  together  by  the  para- 


12  March  Hares. 

pet,  their  shoulders  touching  now  and  again. 
When  they  reached  the  end  of  the  bridge,  and 
paused  to  look  again  upon  the  river  prospect, 
their  manner  had  taken  on  the  ease  of  people 
who  have  known  each  other  for  a  long  time. 

The  tide  was  running  out  now  with  an 
exaggerated  show  of  perturbed  activity.  The 
girl  bent  over,  and  stared  at  the  hurrying 
current,  sweeping  along  in  swirling  eddies 
under  the  arch,  and  sucking  at  the  brown- 
grey  masonry  of  the  embankment  wall  as  it 
passed.  Her  silence  in  this  posture  stretched 
out  over  minutes,  and  he  respected  it. 

At  last  she  had  looked  her  fill  and  turned, 
and  they  resumed  their  walk.  "  I  could  never 
understand  drowning,"  she  remarked,  musing 
ly  ;  "  it  doesn't  appeal  to  me  at  all,  somehow. 
They  talk  about  its  being  pleasant  after  the 
first  minute  or  so,  but  I  don't  believe  it. 
Do  you?" 

"  There  might  possibly  be  some  point  about 
it — if  one  could  choose  the  fluid,"  he  replied, 
achieving  flippancy  with  an  effort.  "  Like  the 
Duke  of  Clarence,  for  example." 


March  Hares.  13 

"  How  do  you  mean  ?  The  papers  all  said 
it  was  influenza.  Oh,  I  see — you  mean  the 
Shakespeare  one."  Her  good  faith  was  un 
doubted.  "But  no,  we  were  speaking  of 
drowning — of  suicide." 

"  No,  we  weren't,"  he  said,  soberly.  The 
memory  of  his  own  mood  a  brief  half-hour 
ago  stirred  uneasily  within  him.  "  And  we're 
not  going  to,  either.  What  the  mischief  have 
you — young  and  healthy  and  happy  and  pretty 
as  a  peach — to  do  with  any  such  things  ?  " 

"  In  fact,"  she  went  on  thoughtfully,  as  if 
he  had  not  spoken,  "  all  kinds  of  death  seem 
an  outrage  to  me.  They  make  me  angry.  It 
is  too  stupid  to  have  to  die.  What  right  have 
other  people  to  say  to  me,  'Now  you  must 
die '  ?  I  was  born  to  live  just  as  much  as  they 
were,  and  I  have  every  whit  as  much  right  on 
the  earth  as  they  have.  And  I  have  a  right 
to  what  I  need  to  keep  me  alive,  too.  That 
must  be  so,  according  to  common-sense  ! " 

Mosscrop  had  listened  to  this  declaration 
of  principles  but  indifferently.  A  sense  of 
drowsiness  had  stolen  over  him,  and,  yielding 


14  Ma/rch  Hwres. 

to  it  for  the  moment,  he  had  hung  his  head, 
with  an  aimless  regard  upon  the  pavement. 
All  at  once  he  caught  sight  of  something  that 
roused  him.  His  companion's  little  boot,  dis 
closed  in  movement  beneath  her  skirt,  was 
broken  at  the  side,  and  almost  soleless.  He 
lagged  behind  for  a  step  or  two,  and  made 
sure  of  what  he  saw.  The  girl  in  the  silken 
blouse  was  shod  like  a  beggar. 

"  Which  way  are  you  going  ?  "  he  asked, 
with  a  pretence  of  suddenly  remembering 
something.  He  had  halted,  and  they  stood  at 
the  corner,  looking  up  Whitehall.  He  smoth 
ered  a  yawn  with  a  little  explanatory  laugh. 
"  I  made  rather  a  night  of  it — it's  my  birth 
day  to-day — and  I'm  half  asleep.  I  hadn't 
noticed  where  we'd  walked  to.  I  hope  I 
haven't  taken  you  out  of  your  way." 

The  girl  hesitated,  looked  up  the  broad, 
stately  street,  and  bit  her  lip  in  strenuous 
thought  of  some  sort. 

"  Good  morning,  then  ! "  she  blurted  out, 
confusedly,  and  turned  to  move  away. 

The  impulse  to  be  quit  of  her  had  been 


March  Hares.  15 

very  sharply  defined  in  his  mind,  and  had  dic 
tated  not  only  his  words,  but  his  awkward, 
half-shamefaced,  half-familiar,  manner  in  sug 
gesting  a  parting.  Now  it  vanished  again  with 
miraculous  swiftness. 

"  No,  no  !  You  mustn't  go  off  like  that !  " 
he  urged,  and  sprang  forward  to  her  side.  "  I 
only  asked  you  which  was  your  way." 

She  was  blinking  her  eyes  in  a  struggle  to 
regain  facial  composure.  He  could  see  that 
she  had  been  on  the  point  of  tears,  and  the 
sight  moved  him  to  recklessness.  It  was  not 
surprising  to  hear  her  confess :  "  Me  ?  I  have 
no  way." 

He  took  charge  of  her  with  a  fine  paternal 
tone.  "  Oh  yes,  you  have  !  Your  way  is  my 
way.  You  are  going  with  me.  It's  my  birth 
day,  you  know,  and  you  have  come  to  help  me 
celebrate  it.  What  do  you  say  to  beginning 
with  a  special  breakfast  ? — or  perhaps  you've 
spoiled  your  appetite  already.  But  you  can 
pretend  to  eat  a  little." 

The  girl  laughed  aloud,  with  pathetic  irony 
at  some  conceit  which  curled  her  lip  in  scorn- 


16  March  Hares. 

ful  amusement.  Words  rose  to  her  tongue, 
but  she  forbore  to  utter  them,  and  stared  up 
the  street. 

"  You'll  come  along,  won't  you  ?  "  He  had 
held  up  his  hand,  and  a  four-wheeler,  with  a 
driver  and  horse  of  advanced  years  and  deject 
ed  aspect,  was  crawling  diagonally  across  the 
roadway  toward  them. 

She  took  courage  to  look  him  frankly  in 
the  face.  "  I  shall  be  very  much  obliged  to 
you,  indeed,"  she  said,  keeping  her  voice  up 
till  the  avowal  should  be  finished.  "  I've  had 
no  breakfast." 

The  ancient  cab,  with  a  prodigious  rattling 
of  framework  and  windows  for  its  snail's  prog 
ress,  bore  them  along  past  Trafalgar  Square, 
and  westward  through  narrow  streets,  already 
teeming  with  a  busy,  foreign-looking  life,  till 
it  halted  before  a  restaurant  in  one  of  the 
broader  thoroughfares  of  Soho. 

When  they  had  alighted,  and  the  sad  old 
driver,  pocketing  his  shilling  in  scowling 
silence,  had  started  off,  a  thought  occurred  to 
Mosscrop. 


March  Hares. 


"  I  tell  you  what  we'll  do,"  he  broke  forth. 
"  We'll  decree  that  it's  your  birthday,  too,  so 
that  we  can  celebrate  them  together.  That 
will  be  much  more  fun.  And  before  we  go 
into  breakfast,  I  must  get  you  a  little  present 
of  some  sort,  just  to  mark  the  occasion.  Come, 
you  haven't  anything  to  say  about  it  at  all. 
It's  my  affair,  entirely." 

He  led  the  way  along  past  several  shops, 
and  halted  in  front  of  a  narrow  window  in 
which  a  small  collection  of  women's  boots  was 
displayed.  A  man  in  shirt-sleeves  and  apron 
had  just  taken  down  the  shutter,  and  stood 
now  in  the  doorway,  regarding  them  with  a 
mercantile  yet  kindly  smile. 

"It  is  the  best  Parisian  of  make,"  the 
shoeman  affirmed,  to  help  forward  Mosscrop's 
decision. 

"  You  can  see  how  different  they  are  from 
ordinary  English  things,"  said  David,  argu- 
mentatively.  "The  leather  is  like  a  glove, 
and  the  workmanship  —  observe  that  !  I  don't 
believe  any  lady  could  have  a  more  unique 
present  than  a  pair  of  real  French  boots." 


18  March  Hares. 

The  girl  had  come  up,  and  stood  close  be 
side  him,  almost  nestling  against  his  shoulder. 
He  saw  in  the  glass  the  dim  reflection  of  her 
pleased  face,  and  moved  toward  the  door  as  if 
it  were  all  settled.  Then,  as  he  stepped  on 
the  threshold,  she  called  to  him. 

"No — please!"  she  urged.  "I  think  we 
won't,  if  you  don't  mind." 

"  Of  course  we  will ! "  he  insisted,  turning 
in  the  doorway.  "Why  on  earth  shouldn't 
we?  It's  your  birthday,  you  know.  Come, 
child,  you  mustn't  be  obstinate ;  you  must  be 
nice,  and  do  what  you're  told." 

As  she  still  hung  back,  shaking  her  head, 
he  went  out  to  her.  "What's  the  matter? 
You  liked  the  idea  well  enough  a  minute  ago. 
I  saw  you  smiling  in  the  window  there.  Come ! 
don't  let  a  mere  trifle  like  this  spoil  the  be 
ginning  of  our  great  joint-birthday.  It's  too 
bad  of  you !  Won't  you  really  have  the  boots 
— from  me  ?  " 

"  Well,"  she  made  answer,  falteringly,  "  it's 
very  kind — but  if  I  do,  I'd  rather  you  didn't 
come  into  the  shop — that  is,  that  you  went  out 


March  Ha/res.  19 

while  I  was  trying  them  on — because — well,  it 
is  my  birthday,  you  know,  and  I  must  have 
my  own  way — a  little.  You  will  stop  outside, 
won't  you?" 

This  struck  him  as  perhaps  an  excess  of 
maidenly  reserve.  He  smiled  impatiently. 
"  By  all  means,  if  it  is  your  whim.  But — but 
I'm  bound  to  say — I  suppose  different  people 
draw  the  line  at  different  places,  but  feet  always 
seemed  to  me  to  be  relatively  blameless  things, 
as  things  go.  Still,  of  course,  if  it's  your 
idea." 

"No,  if  you  take  it  that  way,"  she  said, 
"we'll  go  and  get  our  breakfast,  and  say 
no  more  about  it."  She  found  the  for 
titude  to  turn  away  from  the  window  as  she 
spoke. 

"  If  /  take  it  that  way !  "  The  perverse- 
ness  of  this  trivial  tangle  annoyed  him.  "  Why, 
I  consented  to  stop  outside,  didn't  I  ?  What 
more  is  demanded  ?  Do  you  want  me  to  pass 
a  vote  of  confidence,  or  shall  I  whistle  during 
the  performance,  so  that  you  may  know  I  am 
cheerful,  or  what?  Suppose  I  told  you  that  I 


20  March  Hares. 

had  been  a  salesman  in  a  boot-shop  myself, 
and  had  measured  literally  thousands  of  pretty 
little  feet — would  that  reassure  you  ?  I  might 
come  in,  then,  mightn't  I  ?  " 

"  No — you  never  were  that — you  are  a  gen 
tleman."  She  stole  a  perplexed  glance  up  at 
him,  and  sighed.  "  I  should  dearly  love  the 
boots — but  you  won't  understand.  I  don't 
know  how  to  make  you."  Looking  into  his 
face,  and  catching  there  a  reflection  of  her 
own  dubiety,  she  burst  suddenly  into  laughter. 
"  You  are  a  gentleman,  but  you  are  a  goose, 
too.  My  stockings  are  too  mournful  a  patch 
work  of  holes  and  darning  to  invite  inspection 
— if  you  will  have  it." 

"  Poor  child ! "  He  breathed  relief,  as  if  a 
profoundly  menacing  misunderstanding  had 
been  cleared  up.  "  Here,  take  this  and  run 
across  to  that  fat  Jewess  in  the  doorway  there. 
She  will  fit  you  out." 

Presently  she  returned,  with  beaming  eyes, 
and  an  air  of  shyness  linked  with  compla 
cent  self-approbation  which  he  found  de 
lightful. 


Ma/rch  Ha/res.  21 

"  Oh,  I  should  simply  insist  on  your  com 
ing  in  now"  she  cried  gaily,  at  the  door  of  the 
boot-shop,  in  answer  to  his  mock  look  of  def 
erential  inquiry. 


CHAPTER  II. 

"THERE  surely  was  never  such  another 
breakfast  in  the  world ! " 

She  spoke  with  frank  sincerity.  Upon 
afterthought  she  added :  "I  don't  believe  any 
woman  could  order  a  meal  like  that.  You 
men  always  know  so  much  about  eating." 

Mosscrop  leant  back  in  his  chair,  crossed 
his  knees,  and  took  a  cigar  from  his  pocket. 
His  mind  ran  in  pleasurable  retrospect  over 
the  dishes — a  fragrant  omelette  with  mush 
rooms,  a  sole  Marguerite,  a  delicate  little  steak 
that  had  been  steeped  in  oil  over  night,  a 
pulpy  Italian  cheese  which  he  never  got  else 
where  than  here.  The  tall-shouldered,  urn- 
shaped  green  bottle  on  the  table  still  held  a 
little  Capri,  and  he  poured  it  into  her  glass. 

"  Yes,"  he  assented,  "  I  find  myself  paying 


Ma/rch  Hares.  23 

more  attention  to  food  as  I  get  older.  It  is 
the  badge  of  advancing  years.  It  is  a  good 
little  restaurant,  isn't  it  ?  I  come  here  a  great 
deal." 

"  And  that  is  how  you  are  able  to  order 
such  wonderful  breakfasts  for  hungry  young 
ladies.  It  comes  of  practice.  Do  they  all  en 
joy  it  as  much  as  I  have  ?  " 

"  You  mustn't  ask  things  like  that,"  he  re 
monstrated,  smilingly,  as  he  lit  a  match.  "  I 
hope  you  don't  mind? — thanks."  He  re 
garded  her  contemplatively  through  the  dis 
solving  haze  of  the  first  mouthful  of  smoke. 
They  had  the  small  upstairs  dining-room  to 
themselves,  and  she,  from  her  seat  by  the  win 
dow,  let  her  glances  wander  from  him  to  the 
street  below,  and  back  again,  with  a  charming, 
child-like  effect  of  being  delighted  with  every 
thing.  The  sight  of  her  opposite  him  stirred 
new  emotions  in  his  being.  He  imported  a 
gentle  gravity  into  his  smile,  and  dropped  the 
jesting  tone  from  his  voice.  "No— we  must 
play  that  I  have  never  breakfasted  with  any 
body  before — like  this — either  here  or  any- 


24  March  Hares. 

where  else.  Let  us  both  start  fresh  on  our 
birthday.  We  wipe  everything  off  the  slate, 
and  make  a  clean  beginning.  First  of  all,  you 
haven't  told  me  your  name." 

"  My  name  is  Vestalia  Peaussier." 

"  Then  you  are  not  English  ?  I  could  have 
sworn  you  were  the  most  typically  English  girl 
I'd  ever  laid  eyes  on." 

"  My  father  was  a  French  gentleman — an 
officer,  and  a  man  of  position.  He  died — 
killed  in  a  duel — when  I  was  very  young.  I  do 
not  remember  him  at  all.  My  mother  brought 
me  away  from  France  at  once.  She  was  dread 
fully  crushed,  poor  lady.  She  was  the  daugh 
ter  of  a  very  old  Scottish  house — it  had  been 
a  runaway  love  match — and  her  people,  my 
grandparents " 

"What  part  of  Scotland?  What  was 
their  name?  I  am  a  Scot  myself,  you 
know." 

Yestalia  paused  briefly,  and  sipped  at  her 
wine.  "  I  was  going  to  say — my  grandparents 
behaved  so  unfeelingly  to  my  mother  that  she 
never  permitted  herself  to  mention  their  name. 


March  Hares,  25 

I  do  not  know  it  myself.  I  gathered  as  a  child 
from  poor  mother's  words  that  they  were  ex 
tremely  wealthy  and  proud,  and  had  a  title  in 
the  family.  It  is  not  probable  that  I  shall  ever 
learn  more.  I  should  not  wish  to,  either,  for 
it  was  their  hard  cruelty  which  broke  my 
mother's  heart.  She  died  two  years  ago. 
Poor  unhappy  lady  ! " 

Mosscrop  nodded  sympathetically.  "And 
were  you  left  without  anything  ?  " 

"  My  mother's  private  fortune  had  been 
diminished  to  almost  nothing  by  bad  invest 
ments  and  the  treachery  of  others  before  her 
death.  I  had  no  one  to  advise  me — I  was  all 
alone — and  the  lawyers  and  others  probably 
robbed  me  cruelly.  Only  a  few  of  her  old 
family  jewels  were  left  to  me — and  one  by  one 
I  had  to  part  with  these.  Some  of  them,  I 
daresay,  were  of  great  antiquity  and  priceless 
value,  if  I  had  only  known,  but  I  was  forced 
to  sell  them  for  a  song.  There  were  wonder 
ful  signet-rings  among  them,  all  with  the 
crest  of  the  family — I  suppose  it  must  have 
been  her  family — and  at  first  I  thought  of 


26  Ma/rch  Ha/res. 

using  it  to  trace  them — but  then  my  girlish 
pride " 

"What  was  the  crest?"  asked  David. 
"  Perhaps  it  wouldn't  be  too  late,  now." 

Again  Vestalia  hesitated.  Then  she  shook 
her  head.  "No;  dear  mamma's  wishes  are 
sacred  to  me.  I  do  not  wish  to  learn  what 
she  thought  it  best  to  keep  from  me. " 

"Well — and  when  the  jewels  were  all 
sold?" 

"  Long  before  that  I  had  begun  to  work 
for  my  living.  I  write  a  good  hand  naturally. 
I  got  employment  as  a  copyist,  but  that  did 
not  last  very  long.  I  was  ambitious,  and  I 
thought  I  might  work  my  way  into  literature. 
But  it  is  a  very  disheartening  career,  you 
know." 

Mosscrop  had  lifted  his  brows  in  some 
surprise.  He  nodded  again,  with  a  cursory 
"Ay!" 

"  The  editors  were  not  at  all  kind  to  me," 
she  went  on.  "I  toiled  like  a  slave,  but  I 
hardly  ever  got  anything  accepted,  and  then 
you  had  to  wait  months  for  your  pay,  and 


March  Hares.  27 

perhaps  not  get  it  at  all.  I  should  have 
starved  long  ago,  if  I  hadn't  met  an  American 
woman  at  the  Museum  who  was  over  here  get 
ting  up  pedigrees.  Oh,  not  for  herself.  She 
made  a  regular  business  of  it.  Rich  Ameri 
cans  paid  her  to  hunt  up  their  English  an 
cestors,  in  genealogies  and  old  records,  and  on 
tombstones  and  so  on.  I  was  her  assistant  for 
nearly  a  year,  and  things  went  fairly  well  with 
me.  But  three  months  ago  she  was  taken  ill 
and  had  to  go  home,  and  there  I  was  stranded 
again.  I  tried  to  go  on  with  some  of  the  jobs 
she  left  unfinished,  but  the  people  had  gone 
away,  or  hadn't  confidence  in  so  young  a  per 
son,  and  well — that's  all.  My  landlady  turned 
me  out  at  six  o'clock  this  morning,  and  she 
has  seized  the  few  poor  things  I  had  left — and 
here  I  am." 

The  young  man  lifted  his  glass,  and 
clinked  it  against  hers.  "  I  am  very  glad  that 
you  are  here,"  he  said ;  and  they  smiled  wist 
fully  into  each  other's  eyes  as  they  finished  the 
Capri. 

"  It  is  a  heavenly  little  break  in  the  clouds, 


28  March  Hares. 

anyway,"  she  went  on,  dreamily.  "It  isn't 
like  real  life  at  all :  it  is  the  way  things  hap 
pen  in  fairy  stories." 

"  Quite  so.  Why  shouldn't  we  have  a  fairy 
story  all  by  ourselves  ?  It  is  every  whit  as  easy 
as  the  stupid,  humdrum  other  thing,  and  a 
million  times  nicer.  Oh,  I'm  on  the  side  of 
the  fairies,  myself." 

She  looked  out,  in  an  absent  fashion,  at 
the  windows  across  the  way.  The  light  be 
gan  to  fade  from  her  countenance,  and  the 
troubled  lines  returned.  "Every  day  for  a 
fortnight  I  have  been  answering  advertise 
ments,"  she  went  on,  pensively ;  "  some  by  let 
ter,  some  in  person.  There  were  secretaries' 
places,  but  you  had  to  know  shorthand,  and 
the  typewriter,  and  all  that.  Then  somehow 
all  the  vacancies  for  shop-women  got  filled 
before  I  applied,  or  else  people  with  experi 
ence  in  the  business  were  preferred  to  me.  I 
even  went  in  for  the  '  lady-help '  thing — a 
kind  of  domestic  servant,  you  know,  only  you 
get  less  pay  and  don't  wear  a  cap — but  nobody 
would  have  me.  My  hair  was  too  good  and 


March  Hares.  29 

my  boots  were  too  bad.  The  lady  of  the 
house  just  stared  at  these  two  things,  every 
place  I  applied  at,  and  said  she  was  afraid  I 
wouldn't  answer." 

The  picture  she  drew  was  painful  to  Moss- 
crop,  and  he  made  an  effort  to  lighten  it  with 
levity.  "  I  confess  I  didn't  think  very  highly 
of  your  boots,  myself,"  he  said,  cheerily,  "  but 
I  admire  your  hair  immensely." 

"  Oh,  but  you  are  a  man  ! " 

He  chuckled  amiably  at  the  implication  of 
her  retort,  and  she  laughed  a  little,  too,  in  a 
reluctant  way.  "  It  occurs  to  me,"  he  ven 
tured,  pausing  over  his  words,  "that  men 
seem  to  have  played  no  part  whatever  in  the 
story  of  your  life." 

"  No,  absolutely  none,"  she  answered,  with 
prompt  decision.  "  I  have  never  before  been 
beholden  to  a  man  for  so  much  as  a  biscuit  or 
a  shoe-button.  I  don't  know  that  you  will  be 
lieve  me  when  I  tell  you,  but  I've  never  even 
been  alone  in  a  room  with  a  man  before  in  my 
life." 

"  Of  course,  I  believe  what  you  say.     It  is 


30  March  Hares. 

remarkably  interesting, though.  Come!  First 
impressions  are  the  very  salt  of  life.  I  should 
dearly  like  to  know  what  you  think  of 
the  novel  experience,  as  far  as  you've 
gone." 

She  seemed  to  take  him  seriously.  Plac 
ing  her  elbows  on  the  table,  and  poising  her 
chin  between  thumbs  and  forefingers,  she  be 
stowed  a  frank  scrutiny  upon  his  face,  as  in 
tent  and  dispassionate  as  the  gaze  which  a 
professor  of  palmistry  fastens  upon  the  lines 
of  the  client's  hand. 

"First  of  all,"  she  said,  deliberately,  "I 
am  not  so  afraid  of  you  as  I  was." 

"  Delightful !  "  he  cried.  "  Then  I  did  in 
spire  terror  at  the  outset.  It  has  been  the 
dream  of  my  life  to  do  that — if  only  just  once. 
I  feared  I  should  never  succeed.  My  dear 
lady,  you  have  rescued  me  from  my  own  con 
tempt.  My  career  is  not  a  blank  failure  after 
all.  We  must  have  coffee  and  a  liqueur  after 
that ! " 

He  pressed  the  bell  at  his  side.  She  frowned 
a  little  at  his  merry  exuberance. 


March  Hares.  31 

"  I  am  not  joking,"  she  complained.  "  You 
asked  me  to  say  just  what  I  felt." 

He  nodded  his  contrition  as  the  waiter  left 
the  room. 

"  Yes,  do,"  he  urged.  "  I  will  keep  as  still 
as  a  mouse." 

"  I  am  not  as  afraid  of  you  as  I  was,"  she 
repeated,  dogmatically.  "  But  I  think,  even  if 
I  knew  you  ever  so  well,  I  should  always  be 
just  the  least  weeny  bit  afraid.  I  can  see  that 
you  are  very  kind — my  Heavens !  nobody  else 
has  ever  been  a  hundredth  part  as  kind  to  me 
as  you  are — but  all  the  same — yes,  there  is  a 
~but,  if  I  can  explain  it  to  you — I  get  a  feeling 
that  you  are  being  kind  because  it  affords  you 
yourself  pleasure,  rather  than  because  it  helps 
me.  No — that  is  not  quite  what  I  mean  either. 
It  seems  to  me  that  a  man  will  be  much  kinder 
than  any  woman  knows  how  to  be,  so  long  as 
he  feels  that  way;  but  when  he  doesn't  feel 
that  way  any  more — well,  then  he'll  chuck 
the  whole  thing,  and  never  give  it  another 
thought." 

"  That  is  very  intelligent,"  said  Mosscrop. 


32  March  Hares. 

He  had  the  appearance  of  turning  it  over  in 
his  mind,  and  liking  it  the  more  upon  con 
sideration.  "  Yes,  that  is  soundly  reasoned. 
I  can  well  believe  your  mother  was  a  Scots 
lass." 

Vestalia  flushed,  no  doubt  with  pride. 

"  Well,  then,  hear  me  out,"  she  said,  with 
a  pleasant  little  assumption  of  newly-gained 
authority.  "  Now,  I've  hardly  known  a  man 
to  speak  to — that  is,  a  gentleman,  as  a  friend, 
you  know — if  I'm  justified  in  calling  you  so 
on  such  short  acquaintance — or  no,  I  mustn't 
say  that,  must  I  ?  We  are  friends — but  it's  a 
new  experience,  quite,  to  me.  As  you  say,  I 
have  my  first  impression  of  what  it  is  like  to 
have  a  man  for  a  friend." 

The  waiter,  pushing  the  door  open  with 
his  foot,  brought  in  a  tray  with  white  cups 
and  silver  pots,  and  wee  tinted  glasses,  and  a 
tall,  shapeless  bottle  encased  in  a  basket-work 
covering  of  straw. 

"I  ordered  maraschino,"  remarked  Moss- 
crop,  as  the  man  poured  the  coffee.  "  If  you 
prefer  any  other,  why,  of  course " 


Mafrch  Hares.  33 

"  Oh  no ;  whatever  you  say  is  good,  I  take 
with  my  eyes  shut." 

She  sipped  at  the  little  glass  he  had  filled 
for  her,  and  then,  with  a  movement  of  lips 
and  tongue,  mused  upon  the  unaccustomed 
taste.  An  alert  glance  shot  at  him  from  her 
eyes. 

"  I  hope "  she  began  to  say,  and  stopped 

short. 

"You  hope  what?" 

"  No ;  I  won't  say  what  I  was  going  to.  It 
would  have  been  a  very  ungrateful  speech. 
Only,  you  must  bear  in  mind  that  I  hard 
ly  know  one  wine  from  another,  and  I  am 
leaving  myself  absolutely  in  your  hands.  Youj 
will  see  to  it,  won't  you,  that — that  I  don't 
drink  more  than  I  ought." 

Mosscrop  waved  his  hand  in  smiling  re 
assurance. 

"  But  now  for  that  famous  first  impression 
of  yours." 

She  narrowed  her  eyelids  to  look  at  him, 
and  he  found  her  glance  invested  with  some 
thing  like  tenderness  of  expression.  Her  head 


34  Marcli  Hares. 

was  tilted  a  bit  to  one  side,  so  that  the  light 
from  the  window  fell  full  upon  the  face.  It 
was  a  more  beautiful  face  than  he  had  thought, 
with  exquisitely  faint  and  shell-like  gradations 
of  colour  upon  the  temples  and  below  the  ears, 
where  the  strange  but  lovely  primrose  hair  be 
gan.  A  soft  rose-tint  had  come  into  her 
cheeks,  which  had  seemed  pallid  an  hour  be 
fore.  The  whole  countenance  was  rounded 
and  mellowed  and  beautified  in  his  eyes,  as  he 
answered  her  lingering,  approving  gaze. 

"  My  impression  ?  "  she  spoke  slowly,  and 
with  none  of  the  assurance  which  had  marked 
her  earlier  deliverance.  "  Well,  you  know,  I 
don't  feel  as  if  I  knew  men  any  more  than  I 
did  before.  I  only  know  one  man — a  very, 
very  little.  I  don't  believe  that  other  men  are 
at  all  like  him,  or  else  we  should  hear  about  it 
The  world  would  be  full  of  it.  No  one  would 
talk  of  anything  else.  But  the  man  I  do  know 
— that  is,  a  little — well,  I'd  rather  know  him 
than  all  the  women  that  ever  were  born,  even 
if  I  had  to  be  afraid  of  him  all  the  while  into 
the  bargain." 


March  Hares.  35 

Mosscrop  laughed. 

"  We  did  well  to  label  it  in  advance  as  a 
first  impression.  It  is  the  judgment  of  a  babe 
just  opening  its  eyes.  My  dear  child,  I'm 
afraid  this  isn't  your  birthday,  after  all. 
You're  clearly  not  a  year  old  yet." 

"You  always  joke,  but  I'm  in  sober  ear 
nest."  She  indeed  spoke  almost  solemnly,  and 
with  an  impressive  fervour  in  her  voice. 
"  You  do  impress  me  just  like  that.  I  wish 
you'd  believe  that  I'm  saying  exactly  what  I 
feel.  Mind,  I  expressly  said,  I  don't  suppose 
for  a  minute  that  other  men  are  like  you." 

"  No,  you're  right  there,"  he  broke  in. 

Her  manner,  even  more  than  the  speech, 
affected  him  curiously.  He  drained  his 
liqueur  at  a  gulp,  stared  out  of  the  window, 
fidgetted  on  his  chair,  finally  rose  to  his 
feet. 

"  You're  right  there ! "  he  reiterated,  biting 
his  cigar  and  thrusting  his  hands  deep  in  his 
pockets.  She  would  have  risen  also,  but  he 
signed  to  her  to  sit  still.  "  Other  men  are  not 
like  me,  and  they  can  thank  God  that  they're 


36  March  Hares. 

not.  They  know  enough  to  keep  sober;  I 
don't.  They  are  of  some  intelligent  use  in 
the  world ;  I'm  not.  They  lead  cleanly  and 
decent  lives,  they  control  themselves,  they 
make  names  for  themselves,  they  do  things 
which  are  of  some  benefit  at  least  to  somebody. 
Ah-h !  You  hit  the  nail  on  the  head.  They 
are  different  from  me ! " 

She  gazed  up  at  him,  dumb  with  sheer 
surprise.  He  took  a  few  aimless  steps  up  and 
down,  halted  to  scowl  out  of  the  window  at 
the  signs  opposite,  and  then  flung  himself 
into  the  chair  again.  Sprawling  his  elbows 
on  the  table,  he  bent  forward  and  fastened 
upon  her  a  look  of  such  startled  intensity  that 
she  trembled  under  it  and  drew  back. 

"Why,  do  you  know,  you  foolish  little 
girl,"  he  began,  in  a  hoarse,  declamatory 
voice,  "  that  a  few  minutes  before  you  came 
along,  there  on  the  bridge,  I  was  going  to 
throw  myself  into  the  river,  because  I  wasn't 
fit  to  live.  Do  you  realize  that  I  had  sat  in 
judgment  upon  myself,  and  condemned  myself 
to  death — death,  mind  you  ! — because  I  was 


March  Hares.  37 

an  utterly  hopeless  creature,  a  waste  product, 
a  drunkard,  a  sterile  fool  and  loafer,  a  veri 
table  human  swine  ?  That  is  the  truth !  Do 
you  know  where  I  spent  last  night — where  I 
woke  up,  sick  with  disgust  for  myself,  this 
morning  ?  No,  you  don't ;  and  there's  no  need 
that  I  should  tell  you." 

"  I  don't  care  !  "  The  girl's  lips  propelled 
the  words  forth  with  extraordinary  swiftness, 
but  the  eyes  with  which  she  regarded  her  com 
panion,  and  the  rest  of  her  face,  grown  pale 
once  more,  remained  unmoved. 

"  No,  you  don't  care ! "  he  groaned  out  a 
long  sigh,  and  went  on  with  waning  vigour. 
"  But  /  care !  It  is  something  to  me  that 
I  am  what  I  am;  that  I  have  wasted 
my  life,  that  I  have  done  nothing,  and 
worse  than  nothing,  with  my  chances,  that 
I " 

"  You  misunderstand  me,"  Vestalia  inter 
posed,  with  a  perturbed  simulation  of  calm. 
"  What  I  meant  was  that  whatever  happened 
last — that  is,  at  any  time  before  this  morning 
— makes  no  difference  whatever  in  my — my 


38  March  Hares. 

liking  for  you."  Her  eyes  brightened  at  the 
thought  of  something.  "  It  was  you  yourself 
who  said  we  would  wipe  the  slate  clean,  and 
begin  all  over  again  quite  fresh.  Don't  you 
remember?  And  we  were  to  have  our  own 
fairy  story,  all  to  ourselves.  You  do  remem 
ber,  don't  you  ?  " 

He  still  breathed  heavily,  but  the  gloom 
upon  his  face  began  to  abate  as  he  looked  at 
her.  He  moved  one  of  his  hands  forward  on 
the  table  to  the  neighbourhood  of  hers,  and 
stroked  the  cloth  gently  as  if  it  were  her  hand 
he  touched.  A  weary  smile,  born  in  his  eyes, 
strengthened  and  spread  to  soften  his  whole 
countenance. 

"  Yes,  I  remember  everything,"  he  mused, 
with  a  kind  of  forlorn  gladness  in  his  tone.  It 
seemed  an  invitation  to  silence,  and  they  sat 
without  words  for  a  little. 

With  a  constrained  air  of  having  con 
vinced  herself  by  argument  that  it  was  the 
right  thing  to  do,  Vestalia  all  at  once  lifted 
her  hand,  and  laid  it  lightly  on  his.  He 
fancied  that  it  trembled  a  little.  His  own 


March  Hares.  39 

certainly  shook,  though  he  pressed  it  firmly 
upon  the  table. 

"  Now  the  bad  spirits  have  all  gone,"  he 
said ;  "  it  is  fairyland  again." 

"  Ah,  we  must  keep  it  so,"  she  answered, 
and  pressed  his  hand  softly  before  she  with 
drew  her  own.  The  black  mood  had  fled 
from  him  as  swiftly  as  it  came.  Vestalia's 
eyes  beamed  at  the  sight  of  his  restored  good- 
humour  with  himself,  and  she  nodded  gay  ap 
probation. 

"  I  fancy  we've  about  exhausted  the  de 
lights  of  this  place,"  he  remarked,  after  a 
brief  silence  filled  for  both  of  them  with  a 
pleasantly  sufficient  sense  of  friendship  at 
its  ease.  "I'll  pay  the  bill,  and  we'll  tod 
dle." 

She  glanced  about  her.  "I  shall  always 
remember  this  dear  little  stuffy  old  room.  I 
almost  hate  to  leave  it  at  all.  I  want  to  fix  in 
my  mind  just  how  it  looks." 

"  Oh,  we'll  come  often  again,"  he  re 
marked,  lightly.  Then  it  occurred  to  him 
that  this  assurance  contained  perhaps  an  ele- 


40  March  Hares. 

ment  of  rashness.  "Have  you  got  anything 
special  to  do  to-day?"  he  asked,  with  awk 
ward  abruptness. 

The  question  puzzled  and  troubled  her. 
"  I  was  going  to  celebrate  my  birthday,"  she 
murmured,  with  a  wistful,  flickering  smile 
ready  to  fade  into  depression. 

"  Of  course  you  are ;  that's  all  settled,"  he 
responded,  making  up  by  the  heartiness  of  his 
tone  for  the  forgetful  stupidity  of  his  query. 
"  What  I  meant  was — what  were  you  thinking 
of  doing  before — before  you  knew  you  had  a 
birthday  on  hand  ?  " 

Vestalia  examined  the  bottom  of  her  coffee- 
cup,  and  poked  at  it  with  the  spoon.  "  Me  ? 
Oh,  I  had  several  things  to  do,"  she  made  re 
ply,  hesitatingly.  "  I  had  to  find  something 
to  eat,  and  contrive  how  to  earn  some  money, 
and  hunt  up  a  new  lodging,  and  see  how  I  was 
going  to  feed  myself  to-morrow,  and — and 
other  small  matters  of  that  sort." 

His  comment  was  prefaced  with  a  kind, 
sad  little  laugh. 

"  You  must  go  to  the  old  place,  and  get 


March  Hares.  41 

your  things,"  he  said.  "  How  much  do  you 
owe?" 

"  I'd  rather  not  go  back  at  all."  She  ven 
tured  to  look  up  at  him  now.  "  I  don't  want 
ever  to  lay  eyes  on  that  old  hag  again." 

"  But  your  things.  If  I  sent  a  commis 
sionaire,  would  she  give  them  up? — on  pay 
ment  of  the  bill,  of  course." 

"  They're  not  worth  a  bus-fare — they're 
really  not.  You  see,"  she  went  on  with  her 
reluctant  confidences,  "  I  had  to  pawn  every 
thing.  These  clothes  I  have  on  are  every  rag 
I  have  left." 

Mosscrop,  regarding  her  with  a  sympa 
thetic  gaze,  recalled  very  clearly  the  gown  she 
used  to  wear  at  the  Museum.  It  was  a  queer 
colour— a  sort  of  rusty  greenish-blue  ;  it  was 
of  common  stuff,  and  made  without  a  waist, 
in  some  outlandish  Grosvenor  Gallery  fashion 
novel  to  his  eye.  The  practical  side  of  him 
stumbled  at  this  memory.  "  But  if  you  had 
to  pawn  things,"  he  said,  "I  should  have 
thought  these  silks  you  have  on  would  have 
gone  first.  That  frock  you  used  to  wear  at 


42  March  Hares. 

the  Museum,  for  instance — you  could  only 
have  raised  a  few  pence  on  that — whereas 
these  things — I'm  afraid,  my  young  friend, 
that  you  haven't  a  good  business  head." 

"  Oh,  better  than  you  think,"  she  retorted, 
with  downcast  eyes.  Her  further  words  cost 
her  a  visible  effort.  "  I  thought  it  all  out,  and 
I  saw  that  my  only  chance  was  to  hang  on  to 
these  clothes.  If  people  didn't  happen  to  look 
at  my  boots,  I  was  all  right.  Men  don't  notice 
such  things  much — you  yourself  didn't  at 
first.  And  my  skirt  would  hide  them,  more 
or  less." 

He  looked  at  her  averted  face,  slowly  as 
similating  the  meaning  of  what  she  said. 
Then  he  hastily  turned  his  chair  side  wise, 
rang  the  bell  for  the  waiter,  lit  a  fresh  cigar, 
and  blew  out  the  match  with  a  sigh  which 
deepened  into  an  audible  groan. 

"What  else  could  I  do?"  she  faltered, 
with  a  flushing  cheek,  and  a  tear-dimmed 
stare  out  of  the  window.  "  Nothing  but  throw 
myself  into  the  river.  And  that  I  won't  do. 
They  have  no  right  to  insist  upon  my  doing 


March  Hares.  43 

that.  If  I  was  old  and  horrid,  it  wouldn't 
matter  so  much.  But  I'm  young,  and  I  want 
to  live.  That's  all  I  ask — just  the  chance  to 
live.  And  that  I  won't  let  them  rob  me  of,  if 
I  can  help  it." 

The  waiter,  counting  out  the  change,  em 
braced  the  couple  in  a  series  of  calm,  side 
long  glances.  He  expressed  polite  thanks  for 
the  shilling  pushed  aside  toward  him,  and 
closed  the  door  behind  him  when  he  left 
the  room  with  an  emphasized  firmness  of 
touch. 

Mosscrop  rose.  "  Come,  child,"  he  said, 
briskly.  "  Cheer  up  !  Look  up  at  me — let's 
see  a  smile  on  your  face.  A  little  brighter, 
please — that's  more  like  it.  Now  we  have 
wiped  the  slate  clean !  We  begin  absolutely 
fresh.  Dry  your  eyes,  and  we'll  make  a  start. 
We've  got  those  celebrated  birthdays  of  ours 
to  look  after — and  it's  high  time  we  set 
about  it." 

She  stood  up,  and  smilingly  obeyed  him 
by  dabbing  the  napkin  against  her  nose  and 

brows.     She  moved  across  to  the  mirror  above 
4 


44  March  Hares. 

the  mantel,  and  smiled  again  at  what  she  saw. 
Then  she  looked  down  at  her  boots,  and  her 
face  took  on  a  radiance,  which  it  kept,  as  she 
descended  close  behind  him  the  narrow  stair 
way. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THERE  was  a  bar  at  the  front  of  the  res 
taurant—a  cheerful,  domestic  bar  of  the  Ital 
ian  sort,  with  a  bright-eyed,  smiling,  middle- 
aged  woman  in  charge.  She  knew  Mosscrop, 
and  flashed  a  kindly  glance  of  southern  com 
radeship  at  him  as  he  came  forward,  and 
stopped  and  drew  his  cheque-book  from  his 
pocket.  There  were  also  two  girls  in  the  bar, 
and  they  knew  him  too,  and  grinned  gently  at 
his  salute.  Vestalia  watched  them  narrowly, 
and  fancied  that  one  of  them  also  winked. 

"  I  had  to  stop  and  get  some  more  money," 
he  explained,  when  they  were  in  the  street  to 
gether.  "  There  isn't  another  place  in  these 
parts  where  they  would  change  a  cheque." 

"  I  noticed  that  they  seemed  to  know  you," 
she  replied,  with  reserve. 

45 


46  March  Ha/res. 

"  Dear  people  that  they  are  ! "  he  cried. 
"  The  sight  of  them  in  the  morning  is  always 
delightful  to  me.  Did  you  observe  it — the 
extraordinary  cheerfulness  of  them  all  ?  You 
saw  how  the  girls  chaffed  the  ice-man,  and 
how  the  fellow  who  brought  in  the  soda-water 
cases  had  his  joke  with  the  waiters,  and  how 
madame  clucked  and  chuckled  like  a  good 
hen,  as  if  they  were  all  her  brood,  and  every 
body  seemed  to  like  everybody  else  ?  " 

"I  didn't  get  the  notion  that  they  were 
very  keen  about  me"  remarked  Vestalia.  "  As 
a  matter  of  sober  fact,  they  scowled." 

"  Nonsense  !  Of  course  they  were  defer 
ential  to  you — you  represented  a  sort  of  digni 
fied  unaccustomedness  to  them,  and  they 
were  afraid  to  beam  at  you.  But  bless  you, 
they're  as  simple  and  as  sweet-hearted  as  chil 
dren.  They  laugh  and  smile  at  people  just 
out  of  pure  native  amiability.  The  place  is  as 
good  as  a  tonic  to  me  of  a  morning  when  I  am 
feeling  blue  and  out  of  sorts." 

"  But  you  are  not  this  morning,"  she  re 
minded  him. 


MarcJi  Hares.  47 

For  answer  he  drew  her  hand  through  his 
arm.  They  fell  into  step,  and  moved  along  at 
a  sauntering  gait  on  their  way  toward  Oxford 
Street. 

It  was  mid-August,  and  there  had  been  a 
shower  overnight.  The  pavement  still  showed 
damp  in  its  crevices,  and  the  air  was  clear  and 
fresh.  A  pale  hazy  sunshine  hegan  to  mark 
out  shadows  in  the  narrow  thoroughfares. 
By-and-by  it  would  be  hot  and  malodorous 
here,  but  just  now  the  sense  of  summer's 
charm  found  them  out  even  in  Soho. 

She  had  asked  him  about  himself.  The 
question  had  risen  naturally  enough  to  her 
lips,  and  she  had  propelled  it  without  diffi 
dence.  But  when  the  words  actually  sounded 
in  her  own  ears,  they  frightened  her.  The 
inquiry  seemed  all  at  once  personal  to  the 
point  of  rudeness.  The  possibility  of  his  re 
senting  her  curiosity  rose  in  her  mind,  and  on 
the  instant  flared  upward  into  painful  cer 
tainty. 

"  Oh,  forgive  me ;  I  had  no  business  to  ask 
you ! "  she  hurriedly  added. 


48  March  Hares. 

He  laughed,  and  patted  her  arm.  "  Why 
on  earth  shouldn't  you  ?  " 

"  I  spoke  without  thinking,"  she  faltered. 
"  I  suppose — that  is,  it  occurs  to  me — perhaps 
gentlemen  don't  like  to  be  questioned — what 
I  mean  is,  you  didn't  answer,  and  I  was 
afraid " 

"Afraid  nothing!"  he  reassured  her. 
"You  mustn't  dream  of  being  stand-offish 
with  me.  I  shall  get  vexed  with  you  if 
you  do.  My  dear  little  lady,  there  isn't  any 
thing  in  the  world  that  you're  not  as  free  as 
air  to  say  to  me,  or  ask  me.  I  only  hesitated 
because" — he  began,  smiling  in  a  rueful, 
whimsical  way  down  at  her — "because  it's 
too  complicated  and  sinister  a  recital  to  rush 
lightly  into.  My  name  is  David  Mosscrop, 
and  I  am  an  habitual  criminal  by  profession. 
That  will  do  to  start  with." 

Yestalia  looked  earnestly  into  his  face  for 
some  sign  that  he  was  jesting.  It  was  a 
clean-shaven  face,  cast  by  nature  in  a  mould 
of  gravity.  The  eyes  had  seemed  a  pleasant 
grey  to  her  first  cursory  examination;  but 


March  Ha/res.  49 

now,  on  closer  scrutiny,  there  might  be  a 
hardness  as  of  steel  in  their  colour.  The  lips 
and  chin,  too,  had  a  sharpness  of  line  that 
could  mean  unamiable  things.  And  yet,  how 
could  she  credit  his  words  ?  It  was  true,  she 
recalled,  that  by  all  accounts  many  superior 
gamblers,  burglars,  and  other  evil  characters 
were  in  private  life  most  kindly  persons — of 
notoriously  generous  impulses.  Pictures  of 
the  outlaws  of  romance,  from  Kobin  Hood  to 
Dick  Kyder,  crowded  upon  her  mental  vision. 
The  countenance  into  which  she  tremulously 
stared  might  have  belonged  to  any  of  them — a 
little  blurred  by  the  effects  of  recent  drink,  a 
trifle  stained  in  its  lower  parts  by  the  need  of 
a  razor,  yet  adventurous,  subtle,  courageous ; 
above  all,  commanding.  Her  heart  fluttered 
at  the  thought  of  her  own  temerity  in  leaning 
on  his  arm,  and  she  shot  a  swift  glance  for 
ward  toward  the  big  thoroughfare  they  were 
nearing,  where  there  would  be  crowds  of 
people  to  see  her.  Then  she  tightened  her ' 
hold,  and  said  to  herself  that  she  didn't  mind 
a  bit. 


50  March  Hares. 

"  You  said  I  might  ask  anything  I  liked,"' 
she  found  herself  saying.  "  What  is  your 
special  line  of  crime  ?  " 

"  Well,  specifically,  I  don't  know  just  how 
they  would  define  me.  I  am  not  quite  a  con 
fidence-man,  because  nobody  ever  reposes  an 
atom  of  confidence  in  me.  Mine  is  a  peculiar 
sort  of  case.  I  cannot  be  said  to  deceive  any 
one  by  my  game,  and  yet,  undoubtedly,  I 
come  under  the  general  head  of  impostors.  I 
make  my  living  by  obtaining  money  under 
false  pretences." 

The  girl  was  frankly  mystified.  This 
sounded  so  poor  and  mean  that  her  instincts 
fluttered  back  to  the  original  notion  that  he 
was  joking.  Sure  enough,  she  could  see  the 
laughter  latent  in  his  eyes,  now  that  she 
looked  again. 

"  You're  just  fooling !  "  she  protested,  and 
tugged  admonishingly  upon  his  arm.  "Tell 
me  what  it  is  you  do,  quick  ! " 

"How  do  you  know  I  do  anything?"  he 
demanded.  He  hugged  her  arm  against  his 
side,  to  show  what  great  fun  it  all  was. 


March  Hares.  51 

"Why  shouldn't  I  be  a  gentleman  at  large? 
There  are  such  things,  you  know." 

She  shook  her  head.  "  Gentlemen  at  large 
don't  read  hard  at  the  Museum  in  August.  I 
never  understood  they  were  much  given  to 
reading  at  any  time  of  year,  for  that  matter. 
No,  I  know  you  do  something.  You  are  in  a 
profession ;  I  can  see  that.  You  are  not  a 
doctor ;  you  are  too  polite  and  kind-mannered 
for  that.  I  thought  at  first  that  you  were  a 
journalist,  but  they  don't  have  cheque-books. 
Oh,  tell  me,  please ! " 

He  laughed  gaily.  "  Ten  thousand  guesses 
and  you'd  never  hit  it.  My  dear  lady,  I  pro 
fess  Ouldees." 

Vestalia  pondered  the  information  with 
gravity  for  a  little,  stealing  sidelong  glances 
to  learn  if  this  was  more  of  his  fun.  "  You 
can  see  how  ignorant  I  am,"  she  remarked  at 
last.  "  You  will  recognise  presently  that  you 
are  wasting  your  time  with  me.  What  are 
Culdees?  Or  is  it  a  thing?  I  assure  you  I 
haven't  the  remotest  notion." 

"  It  is  a  secret,"  he  assured  her,  in  tones 


52  March  Hares. 

which  strove  to  be  serious,  but  revealed  a 
jocose  note  to  her  ear. 

She  shook  his  arm  gleefully.  "  As  if  we 
could  have  secrets  on  our  birthday ! "  she 
cried.  "  Tell  me  instantly  all  about  Culdees  ! 
I  insist." 

"  But  I  don't  know  anything  about  them. 
That  is  the  secret — nobody  knows  anything 
about  them.  I  draw  a  salary  for  devoting 
three  weeks  each  year  to  explaining  to  a  class 
of  young  men  who  desire  to  know  nothing 
whatever  about  the  Culdees,  that  if  they  did 
wish  to  learn  about  them  they  couldn't  pos 
sibly  do  it." 

"  Are  there  any  more  jobs  like  that,  that 
you  know  of  ?  "  inquired  the  girl.  "  It  would 
just  suit  me."  Then  she  spoke  less  flippantly. 
"  I'm  afraid  you've  already  discovered  how 
shallow  and  ill-informed  I  am.  You  do  not 
think  it  is  worth  while  to  talk  seriously  with 
me!" 

He  seemed  much  affected  by  her  rebuke. 
"  My  dear  lady "  he  began,  in  earnest  dis 
claimer. 


Mcvrcli  Hares.  53 

"No;  what  I  mean  is — "  she  interrupted 
him — pleased  by  his  show  of  contrition,  but 
even  more  interested  in  the  now  of  her  own 
ideas,  and  the  sound  of  her  own  voice,  which 
had  taken  on  musical  intonations,  and  deli 
cately-measured  cadences  since  breakfast  that 
were  novel  to  her  delighted  hearing-s^"what  I 
mean  is,  men  do  not  have  any  real  intellectual 
respect  for  women ;  they  do  not  think  of  them 
in  their  deep-down  thoughts  as  their  mental 
equals;  they  still  regard  them,  as  their  an 
cestors  did  thousands  of  years  ago,  as  mere 
toys,  playthings,  creatures  to  pat  on  the  cheek 
and  talk  pleasant  nonsense  to,  when  there  is 
nothing  better  to  do.  And  the  worst  of  it  is 
that  so  many  women — a  large  majority — are 
contented  with  this,  and  aspire  to  nothing 
higher,  and  they  set  the  rules  for  the  rest; 
and  hence  young  women  who  have  ambitions, 
and  do  desire  to  make  themselves  the  equals 
of  men,  and  set  up  high  ideals  of  intellectual 
life,  they — they  find  themselves — find  them 
selves " 

"Find    themselves    being    regarded    with 


54  March  Hares. 

much  very  genuine  liking  and  friendship  by 
those  to  whom  they  are  good  enough  to  give 
their  company,"  Mosscrop  finished  the  sen 
tence  for  her.  He  smiled  to  himself  as  ho 
pressed  her  arm  still  more  closely.  The  girl 
was  not  accustomed  to  drink,  and  the  Capri 
and  maraschino  had  gone  to  her  tongue.  He 
was  pleasantly  conscious  of  their  influences 
himself,  and  upon  second  thought  he  liked  his 
companion  all  the  more  for  the  innocent  fear 
lessness  with  which  she  had  followed  his  ex 
ample.  The  charm  of  the  whole  experience 
strengthened  its  hold  upon  him.  He  looked 
down  with  tenderness  upon  her.  "  Yes,  very 
genuine  friendship — and  gratitude,"  he  reiter 
ated,  with  ardour  in  his  low  voice. 

She  did  not  conceal  the  enjoyment  she  had 
in  both  look  and  tone.  "  The  idea  of  real 
companionship  is  so  precious  in  my  eyes,"  she 
murmured — "  a  true  communion  of  minds. 
There  is  nothing  else  in  life  worth  living  for. 
Do  you  think  there  can  be  any  real  friendship 
without  genuine  intellectual  respect?" 

"  Oh,  I  wouldn't  lay  too  much  stress  on 


March  Hares.  55 

that  myself,"  he  answered,  lightly.  "I  find 
that  the  fellows  I  really  like  the  most — the 
men  that  I  take  the  most  solid  comfort  in 
putting  in  time  with — are  tremendous  duffers 
from  any  intellectual  point  of  view,  but  of 
course  " — he  found  himself  hastily  adding — 
"that  is  among  men.  I  have  never  known 
anything  at  all  about  women  friends — that  is, 
of  what  one  may  honestly  call  friends.  But  I 
am  learning  fast.  I  have  reached  the  point  of 
forming  an  ideal :  she  must  be  tall,  with  her 
hat  just  brushing  above  my  collar.  She  must 
have  the  most  wonderful  pale  yellow  hair  in 
the  world,  and  the  prettiest  face,  and  new 
French  boots — and " 

"You  don't  care  in  the  least  what  kind 
of  a  mind  she  has,"  put  in  Vestalia,  dole 
fully. 

"  Ah,  you  didn't  let  me  finish.  She  will 
have  a  spirit  brave  and  yet  tender,  a  mind 
broad  and  capable  yet  without  arrogance,  a 
temperament  attuning  itself  to  each  passing 
mood,  sunny,  shadowed,  merry,  pensive,  ad 
venturous,  timid — all  as  full  of  sweet  little 


56  March  Hares. 

turns  and  twists  and  unexpected  things  in 
general  as  an  April  day.  I  don't  want  her 
learned:  I  should  hate  her  to  be  logical.  I 
like  her  just  as  she  is :  I  wouldn't  have  her 
changed  for  the  world." 

In  details  the  definition  perhaps  left  some 
thing  to  be  desired.  But  its  form  of  presen 
tation  brought  a  flush  of  satisfaction  to  Ves- 
talia's  cheek.  She  nestled  closer  still  against 
his  shoulder  for  a  dozen  paces  or  so,  and  when 
she  drew  away  then,  let  him  feel  that  it  was 
because  they  were  at  Oxford  Street,  and  for 
no  other  reason. 

"  Oh,  the  beautiful  day !  "  was  all  she  said. 

They  turned  to  the  right,  and  sauntered 
aimlessly  along  down  the  broad  pavement, 
pausing  now  and  again  to  glance  over  some 
tradesman's  display,  then  drifting  onward 
again,  close  together.  Before  a  bookseller's 
window  at  a  corner  they  made  a  more  consid 
erable  halt.  Mosscrop  scanned  the  rows  of 
titles  minutely,  talking  as  he  did  so.  Thus 
between  comments  on  the  volumes  they  looked 
at,  and  idle  remarks  on  subjects  which  these 


March  Hares.  57 

suggested,  she  picked  up  this  further  account 
of  her  new  friend's  affairs. 

"  I  told  you  I  was  a  Scotchman,"  he  said. 
"  I  was  the  son  of  a  factor,  a  sort  of  steward 
over  a  biggish  estate,  and  I  never  did  any 
thing  but  go  to  school  from  the  earliest 
moment  I  can  remember.  It  is  as  if  I  was 
born  in  a  class-room,  and  cradled  on  a  black 
board.  It  is  a  terrible  land  for  that ;  tuition 
broods  over  it  like  a  pestilence.  Their  idea  is 
to  make  of  each  child's  brain  a  sort  of  intel 
lectual  haggis ;  the  more  different  kinds  of 
stuff  there  are  in  it,  the  greater  the  fame  of 
the  teacher  and  the  pride  of  the  parents.  I 
shudder  now  when  I  think  how  much  I  knew 
at  the  age  of  twelve.  As  for  my  eighteenth 
year,  when  I  took  the  Strathbogie  exhibition, 
Confucius,  John  Knox,  and  Lord  Bacon  rolled 
in  one  would  have  been  frightened  of  me. 
My  information  was  appalling.  My  mother 
died  from  sheer  excess  of  astonishment  at  hav 
ing  given  birth  to  such  a  prodigy.  My  father 
took  to  drink.  The  magnificence  of  my  at 
tainments  not  only  threw  him  off  his  balance 


58  March  Hares. 

—it  debauched  the  entire  district.  It  is  the 
law  of  history,  you  know,  that  communi 
ties  and  nations  progress  to  a  certain  point, 
achieve  some  crowning  deed  in  a  golden  age 
of  splendid  productiveness,  and  then  wither 
and  go  off  to  seed.  Well,  my  parish,  having 
produced  me,  reached  its  climax.  Industry 
flagged,  enterprise  died  down ;  the  very  land 
ceased  to  grow  as  much  corn  to  the  acre  as 
formerly.  The  people  could  do  nothing  but 
congregate  at  the  taverns  and  discuss  with 
bated  breath  my  meteoric  progress  across  the 
academic  heavens.  Oh,  I  was  a  most  remark 
able  young  man ! 

"It  happened  that  there  was  also  a  re 
markable  old  man  in  my  neighbourhood.  He 
came  from  nobody  in  particular,  and  went 
away  young.  People  had  long  since  forgotten 
that  there  had  been  such  a  lad,  when  one  day 
he  returned  to  us,  well  along  in  years,  and  in 
famously  rich.  I  don't  mean  that  he  had  come 
wrongfully  by  his  money.  God  knows  how 
he  got  it ;  the  story  ran  that  it  had  something 
to  do  with  smoked  fish.  Whatever  its  source, 


March  Hares.  59 

his  wealth  was  wanton,  preposterous,  criminal 
in  its  dimensions.  He  had  no  kith  or  kin 
remaining  to  him.  Of  course  we  knew  he 
would  build  and  endow  an  educational  estab 
lishment.  All  rich  old  Scotchmen  do  that,  as 
an  ordinary  matter.  They  have,  reared  for  us 
such  myriads  of  brand-new  colleges  and  semi 
naries  on  every  hillside  that  I  marvel  even  the 
rabbits  and  pheasants  can  escape  learning  to 
spell.  There  are*  logarithms  in  the  very  at 
mosphere. 

"  But  this  old  man  was  not  to  be  put  off 
with  a  mere  academy.  He  piled  up  a  verita 
ble  castle  of  instruction,  a  first-class  fortress 
of  learning.  And  he  had  an  idea  of  some 
thing  which  should  be  unique  among  all  the 
schools  of  the  world.  It  was  all  his  own  idea. 
Even  in  Scotland  it  had  not  occurred  to  any 
one  else.  You  must  know  that  in  early  Scotch 
ecclesiastical  history,  say  from  the  eighth  to 
the  twelfth  centuries,  there  are  occasional 
mentions  of  some  bounders  called  Culdees, 
who  seem  to  have  run  a  little  sacerdotal  show 

of  their  own,  something  between  hermits  and 
5 


60  March  Hares. 

canons-regular  —  it  is  absolutely  impossible 
now  to  make  out  just  what  they  were.  But 
this  extraordinary  old  man  was  quite  clear  in 
his  mind  about  them.  He  had  reasoned  it  all 
out  for  himself.  He  said  that '  Culdees '  was, 
of  course,  a  mere  popular  corruption  of  '  Chal- 
dees.'  He  loved  to  argue  this  with  all  comers, 
and  he  did  so, — my  word  for  it,  he  did  !  Now 
nobody  in  Scotland  ever  agrees  with  any  view 
or  opinion  advanced  by  any  other  person,  but 
the  art  of  disagreeing  has  been  reduced,  by 
ages  of  use,  to  a  delicately-modulated  system. 
Everybody  disputed  his  ridiculous  notion  of 
the  <  Chaldees ' — they  would  have  fought  it 
just  as  stoutly  if  it  had  been  a  wise  one — but 
he  was  a  very  rich  man,  and  he  had  benevo 
lent  intentions  toward  the  district,  and  so  they 
'roared  him  gently  as  any  sucking  dove.' 
They  couldn't  admit  his  contention,  oh  no, 
but  they  let  him  feel  that  they  were  thinking 
about  it,  that  it  had  made  an  impression  on 
their  minds,  that  in  due  time  they  might  see 
it  differently. 

"  The  upshot  was  that  the  old  fool  estab- 


March  Hares.  61 

lished  a  Culdee  Chair  in  the  faculty  of  his 
new  college,  and  made  it  worth  more  money 
than  any  other  professorship  of  the  lot.  The 
celebrity  of  my  performances  at  school  was 
fresh  then,  and  reached  his  ears.  He  gave 
the  billet  to  me,  and  confirmed  it  to  me  in 
his  will  when  he  died,  a  year  later — and  that 
is  all."V 

"  And  you  actually  only  work  three  weeks 
a  year  ?  And  get  paid  a  whole  year's  salary 
for  that?" 

Vestalia  regarded  him  with  astonishment, 
as  she  put  the  question. 

They  had  strolled  meanwhile  down  the 
great  thoroughfare,  crossed  it,  and  passed  into 
a  narrower  lateral  by-way. 

"  It  is  hardly  even  three  full  weeks'  work," 
he  replied.  "  There  is  nothing  to  do  in  the 
way  of  fresh  discovery.  Beeves  and  Skene 
and  other  fellows  have  gleaned  the  last  spear 
of  straw  in  the  stubble.  I  do  go  through  the 
form  of  getting  up  some  lectures  each  Au 
tumn,  but  it  is  really  such  dreadful  humbug 
that  I'm  ashamed  to  look  the  students  in  the 


62  March  Hares. 

face,  let  alone  my  fellow-professors.  Fortu 
nately,  most  of  the  latter  are  clergymen,  and 
that  makes  it  a  little  easier.  They  know  that 
they  are  as  big  frauds  as  I  am,  in  their  own 
line  of  goods,  and  so  we  say  nothing  about  it." 

"  What  struck  me,"  she  began,  hesitatingly, 
"  you  spoke  rather — what  I  mean  is,  you  don't 
appear  to  be  very  grateful  to  the  old  gentle 
man  who  arranged  all  this  for  you — and  to  me 
it  seems  the  most  wonderful  thing  I  ever  heard 
of.  I  should  thank  his  memory  on  my  bended 
knees  every  day  of  my  life  if  /  were  the  Pro 
fessor  of  Culdees.  I  couldn't  find  it  in  my 
heart  to  poke  fun  at  him;  I  should  think 
of  him  and  revere  him  as  my  benefactor, 
always  !  " 

"  Hm — m  ! "  said  Mosscrop.  "  I'm  not  sure 
I  don't  wish  he'd  never  been  born,  or  had 
choked  on  a  bone  of  one  of  his  own  damned 
Finnan  haddies,  before  ever  he  came  back 
to  us ! " 

The  ring  in  his  voice,  like  a  surly  rattling 
of  chains,  brought  back  to  her  vividly  the 
scene  of  his  despondency  at  the  restaurant. 


March  Hcvres.  63 

She  made  haste  to  lay  her  hand  upon  his 
arm. 

"  Oh,  do  you  see  where  we  are  ?  "  she  cried, 
vivaciously,  snatching  at  the  chance  of  di 
version. 

Sure  enough,  a  section  of  the  Museum's 
stately  front  lay  before  them,  filling  to  top- 
heaviness  the  perspective  of  the  small  street. 
They  had  wandered  instinctively  toward  this 
pre-natal  rendezvous  of  their  friendship. 
Their  eyes  softened  now  as  they  looked  at  the 
grey,  pillared  block  of  masonry  stretching 
across  the  end  of  their  by-way. 

"It  draws  us  like  a  magnet,"  said  Moss- 
crop.  "  Come,  what  do  you  say  ?  Shall  we 
go  in  for  an  hour,  and  wander  about  as  if  we 
were  nice  rural  people  come  up  to  London  to 
see  the  sights?  I  should  like  to  myself." 

"  The  dear  old  place ! "  sighed  Vestalia, 
with  mellow  tones. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

IT  was  a  long  hour  that  the  Museum 
claimed  from  them. 

"  This  is  what  always  attracts  me  most  of 
all,"  said  Mosscrop  upon  entering.  He  turned 
to  the  left,  and  led  the  way  into  the  little  gal 
lery  of  the  Eoman  portrait-busts.  "  Very  often 
I  never  go  any  farther  than  this.  The  mod- 
ernness  of  these  fellows  is  a  perpetual  marvel 
to  me.  It  is  as  if  we  met  them  every  day. 
Look  at  Caracalla  and  Septimius  Severus; 
they  are  exactly  like  Irish  members.  And  see 
Pertinax,  here ;  I  know  at  least  ten  old  farmers 
about  Elgin  who  might  be  his  own  brothers. 
Observe  this  man  Hadrian.  He  is  the  abso 
lute  image  of  Francis  the  First.  You  know 
the  portraits  of  him  at  Hampton  Court — what  ? 
never  been  there  ?  Ah,  that's  a  place  we  will 

64 


March  Hares.  65 

go  to  together.  There  is  one  picture  of  Francis 
there — he  is  very  drunk,  apparently,  and  has 
got  hold  of  the  hand  of  the  Duchess  of  Some- 
thing-or-other,  and  she  is  in  her  cups,  too,  and 
the  inane,  leering,  almost  simian  happiness  of 
the  two — oh,  it  is  worth  a  long  journey  just  to 
see  that  one  picture." 

"It  doesn't  sound  very  inviting,"  com 
mented  Vestalia.  "  Tipsy  women  are  repul-t 
sive,  whether  they  are  duchesses  or  not." 

Mosscrop  chuckled.  "  Oh,  but  you  must 
make  allowances  for  the  period.  It  was  the 
Eenaissance,  the  joyful,  exuberant,  devil-may- 
care  Kenaissance.  If  once  you  catch  the 
inner  spirit  of  it,  you  will  feel  that  it  was  the 
most  glorious  of  periods.  And  Francis  the 
First  was  the  living,  breathing  type  of  it. 
There  was  a  man  for  you  !  He  celebrated  his 
birthday  all  the  year  round.  And  in  this 
particular  instance,  why,  I  daresay  it  was 
the  Duchess's  birthday  too.  I  should  have 
thought  you  would  take  a  more  lenient  view 
of  such  a  pleasing  double  anniversary." 

Vestalia  looked   doubtfully  at   him.     "  I 


66  March  Hares. 

hope  you  don't  mean  that  /  am  in  my  cups,  as 
you  call  it,"  she  said. 

He  laughed  her  suspicion  down.  "  No,  I 
won't  let  you  hint  at  such  an  absurd  thing. 
My  dear  friend,  I  must  cultivate  your  sense  of 
humour.  The  roots  exist,  but  the  growth  is 
choked  by  the  weeds  of  Lambeth— or  was  it 
Kennington  ?  We  must  have  them  up." 

"  But  I  don't  know  when  you  are  joking," 
she  protested.  "  Besides,  I  always  understood 
that  the  Scotch  were  not  a  joking  people." 

"  Ah,  you  confuse  two  things.  It  is  said  of 
us,  with  some  justice,  that  we  are  slow  to  com 
prehend  the  jokes  of  others.  But  of  the  mak 
ing  of  jokes  by  ourselves  there  is  no  end. 
And — ah,  here  is  Nero.  I  love  Nero  ! " 

"  Is  that  a  joke,  too  ?  " 

"  Ah,  no,"  he  answered,  more  seriously. 
"  It  is  in  my  nature  to  love  all  the  people 
whom  history  has  picked  out  to  condemn.  If 
you  knew  the  sort  of  creatures  who  wrote  the 
histories — the  old  chronicles  and  records  and 
so  on — you  would  understand  my  point  of 
view.  They  were  full  of  all  meannesses  and 


March  Hares.  67 

narrow  bigotries  ;  they  calumniated  everybody 
they  couldn't  blackmail.  Take  the  case  of 
Eichard  Lionheart  and  his  brother  John,  in 
your  own  English  history.  The  former  was 
a  ferocious  and  turbulent  blackguard,  who 
neglected  all  his  duties  of  kingship  without 
shame,  plundered  his  own  subjects  by  torture 
and  rapine,  and  was  altogether  a  curse  to  his 
own  people  and  everybody  else.  The  mere 
trick  of  his  having  a  taste  for  songs  and  music 
saved  him.  He  buttered  up  the  bards,  and 
they  fastened  him  in  history  as  a  hero.  It  is 
precisely  the  same  thing  that  is  done  now  by 
politicians  who  take  pains  to  make  friends 
with  the  newspapers.  On  the  other  hand, 
John  was  a  model  monarch,  diligent,  hard 
working,  extraordinarily  attentive  to  his  duties, 
travelling  for  ever  up  and  down  the  country 
to  hold  courts  of  justice,  and  right  the  wrongs 
poor  people  suffered  at  the  hands  of  the 
barons  and  the  abbots  and  other  powerful 
ruffians.  It  is  plain  enough  that  the  poor 
people  loved  him  ;  after  all  these  centuries  his 
name  continues  to  be  the  most  popular  baptis- 


68  March  Hares. 

mal  name  among  them.  But  the  bards  and 
monkish  chroniclers  were  in  the  pay  of  the 
barons  and  abbots,  and  they  paint  John  for  us 
as  the  most  evil  scoundrel  in  English  history. 
That's  the  way  it  has  always  been  done.  I 
should  like  to  have  Nero's  side  of  his  story. 
I  know  he  must  have  been  a  splendid  fel 
low,  to  have  got  the  historians  so  violently 
against  him.  I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if  he 
was  really  almost  as  fine  as  Kichard  the 
Third." 

"  How  amusing ! "  said  Vestalia  at  this 
point,  and  Mosscrop  was  swift  to  take  the  hint. 
They  moved  on  through  the  Greek  rooms, 
where  the  girl  had  more  of  a  chance.  She 
had  known  a  few  of  the  students  who  are  ac 
customed  on  giving  days  to  offer  up  sacrifices 
of  time  and  crayons  and  good  white  paper  in 
front  of  the  more  fashionable  statues,  and  this 
had  provided  her  with  what  seemed  to  her 
companion  an  exhaustive  familiarity  with 
Hellenic  art.  This  advantage  followed  and 
remained  with  her  amid  the  sombre  and  lofty 
fragments  of  the  Mausoleum,  and  shone  about 


March  Hares.  69 

her  when  they  confronted  the  frieze  of  the 
Parthenon. 

"  It  is  not  my  subject,"  he  remarked,  de 
lightedly.  "  This  is  a  Hermes,  you  say,  and 
that  a  Winged  Goddess  of  Victory.  Ah,  and 
this  is  a  River  God.  I  don't  think  I've  ever 
been  here  before.  It  is  charming — to  come 
with  you.  We  supplement  each  other.  Sure 
enough,  I  ought  to  have  foreseen  that  you 
would  know  about  Greek  art.  It  is  just  the 
field  that  would  attract  a  beautiful  young 
woman.  It  fits  you — it  belongs  to  you." 

"  Now — now !  "  she  admonished  him,  hold 
ing  up  a  finger  in  playful  protest. 

"Oh,"  he  urged,  "if  I'm  not  to  say  that 
you  are  beautiful,  we  might  as  well  not  have 
any  birthday  at  all.  That  is  its  most  elemen 
tary  fact — lying  at  the  very  foundation  of  every 
thing.  To  ignore  it  would  be  like  trying  to 
celebrate  the  Fifth  of  November  without  a 
guy." 

Again  she  shot  a  glance  of  dubiety  at  him. 
"  I  don't  know  in  the  least  how  to  take  that," 
she  confessed,  with  a  quiver  on  her  lip. 


70  March  Hares. 

He  laughed  outright  at  this,  and  gaily 
patted  her  on  the  shoulder.  "  This  unnatural 
Attic  levity  of  mine  is  all  the  fault  of  the 
frieze.  I'm  a  cat  in  a  strange  garret  here. 
Hasten  with  me  to  the  Assyrian  rooms,  if  you 
want  to  see  the  utmost  height  of  solemnity  it 
is  given  to  mortals  to  attain." 

He  was  not  quite  as  good  as  his  word, 
when  they  began  loitering  along  before  the 
carved  tablets  from  Nineveh  and  Khorsabad. 
Instruction  he  could  not  help  piling  upon  his 
companion,  for  this  was  Ms  subject,  but  he 
found  himself  seasoning  it  with  all  sorts  of 
sprightly  commentaries  on  the  serious  text. 
Of  grave  and  sportive  alike  he  had  so  much  to 
say  that  Vestalia  took  his  arm,  and  leant  upon 
it  as  they  made  their  slow  progress  through 
the  long  corridors.  The  contact  was  exhilarat 
ing  to  him.  He  could  not  be  sure  that  she 
was  assimilating  any  large  proportion  of  his 
discourse,  but  her  pretence  of  interest  at  least 
was  very  pretty,  and  the  touch  of  her  arm  in 
his  was  full  of  inspiration  to  his  tongue. 

Down  in  the  basement,  or  crypt,  he  stood 


March  Hares.  71 

before  the  lions  of  Assur-Banipal,  and  talked 
at  length.  She  said  she  had  read  Byron's 
"  Sardanapalus,"  and  he  told  her  how  those 
detestable  linguists,  the  Greeks,  had  altered 
the  name,  and  how  the  Assyrian  legends  of  a 
great  warrior  and  sovereign  had  become  twist 
ed  in  the  Hellenic  after-version  to  depict  a 
sublimation  of  debauched  effeminacy  and  lux 
ury  run  mad.  She  listened  with  her  shoulder 
against  his — but  now  he  had  other  auditors 
as  well. 

"  Excuse  me,  sir,"  the  urgent  and  anxious 
voice  of  a  stranger  said  close  behind  him, 
"but  you  seem  to  be  extraordinarily  well 
posted  indeed  on  these  sculptures  here.  I 
hope  you  will  not  object  to  my  daughter 
and  me  standing  where  we  can  hear  your 
remarks." 

Mosscrop  turned,  and  saw  before  him  an 
elderly  man,  with  a  mild  expression,  and  hair 
and  beard  of  extreme  whiteness.  He  was 
soberly  attired,  and  carried  in  his  hand  a 
broad-brimmed  hat  of  woven  white  straw. 
He  bowed  courteously,  and  indicated  by  a 


72  March  Ha/res. 

gentle  gesture  the  young  lady  standing  at 
his  side. 

"  I  should  delight,  sir,  to  have  my  daughter 
be  privileged  to  profit  by  your  remarks,"  he 
repeated,  and  bowed  again. 

The  daughter  was  a  dark,  well-rounded 
girl,  dressed  with  much  elegance.  Her  face 
was  strikingly  Oriental  in  type,  with  coal-black 
tresses  drawn  low  over  the  temples,  and  a  skin 
of  a  uniform  ivory  hue.  She  said  nothing, 
but  looked  at  Vestalia's  hair. 

Mosscrop  spoke  somewhat  abruptly.  "  You 
are  certainly  welcome,  but  it  happens  that  I 
have  finished  my  remarks,  as  you  call  them." 

"That  is  too  bad,"  replied  the  stranger, 
with  a  sigh  of  resignation.  "I  overheard 
enough  to  convince  me  that  they  were  first- 
rate.  It  is  our  misfortune,  sir,  mine  and  my 
daughter's,  to  have  arrived  too  late.  I  pre 
sume,  sir,  that  you  have  given  special  attention 
to  this  branch  of  study  ?  " 

The  Professor  of  Culdees  nodded  briefly. 

"  And  may  I  take  the  liberty  of  inquiring, 
sir,"  the  old  man  persisted,  "whether  you 


Ma/rch  Ha/res.  73 

are  professionally  engaged  in  transmitting  to 
others  the  knowledge  which  you  have  thus 
acquired  ?  " 

A  stormy  grin  began  twitching  at  the  cor 
ners  of  Mosscrop's  mouth.  He  nodded  again. 

"  My  purpose  in  putting  the  question  is 
not  one  of  idle  curiosity,  sir,"  the  other  went 
on.  "  My  life-long  desire  to  visit  Europe,  and 
behold  its  venerable  ruins  and  its  remarkable 
accumulations  of  objects  of  historical  and 
artistic  interest,  has  attained  fulfilment  at  a 
period,  unfortunately,  when  the  burden  of  my 
years,  while  not  incapacitating  me  from  the 
enjoyments  of  the  mind,  renders  me  less  ca 
pable  of  searching  out  new  information  than 
I  should  once  have  been.  It  also,  I  see  only 
too  clearly,  unfits  me  to  act  as  a  guide  and 
interpreter,  amid  these  treasures  of  the  storied 
past,  to  a  young  mind  so  much  fresher  and 
more  eager  than  my  own.  I  recognise  this, 
sir,  frankly,  and  I  should  be  glad  to  discuss 
some  possible  arrangement,  with  the  proper 
persons,  by  which  my  deficiencies  might  be 
supplied  in  this  connection." 


74  March  Hares. 

The  elaborate  and  deferential  courtesy 
with  which  the  old  gentleman  spoke  made  a 
curt  answer  impossible.  Mosscrop  looked 
from  father  to  daughter  with  a  puzzled  smile. 

"  You  are  Americans,  I  take  it  ?  " 

"  We  are  from  Paris,  sir."  He  made  haste 
to  add,  "From  Paris,  Kentucky.  I  obtrude 
the  explanation,  because  I  find  that  among 
foreigners  there  is  frequently  a  tendency  to 
confuse  our  city  with  the  celebrated  me 
tropolis  on  the  Continent,  which  bears  the 
same  name,  but  is  a  place  of  an  entirely 
different  character.  To  a  scholar  like  your 
self,  however,  I  might  have  realised  that  such 
an  error  would  be  impossible.  I  ask  your 
pardon,  sir." 

"  Oh,  don't  mention  it,"  replied  Mosscrop, 
lightly.  He  could  not  recall  ever  having 
heard  of  such  a  place  before,  and  for  a 
moment  was  tempted  to  say  so.  But  there 
was  an  effect  of  sweet  simplicity  in  the  old 
man's  face  and  manner  which  restrained  his 
tongue.  "  Well,"  he  said  instead,  "  what  is  it 
that  you  wish?  I  am  not  sure  that  I  have 


March  Haves.  75 

entirely  caught  your  idea.  Do  you  want  some 
one  to  go  round  with  you  and  show  you 
things?" 

"Not  in  the  ordinary  meaning  which 
would  attach  to  that  description,"  the  other 
answered.  "  We  do  not  require  to  have  things 
shown  to  us  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word, 
but  I  had  thought  that  if  we  were  attended 
in  our  inspection  of  the  various  objects  of 
interest  for  which  Europe  is  justly  famous, 
by  some  person  of  erudition  and  also  of  an 
exceptional  style  of  delivery,  the  experience 
would  be  of  much  greater  practical  value  to 
my  daughter.  Of  course,  sir,  I  am  aware  that 
professional  assistance  of  this  high  character 
is  not  to  be  obtained  without  commensurate 
compensation,  but  that  is  a  consideration 
which  presents  no  obstacles  to  my  mind." 

David  felt  Vestalia's  hand  trembling  upon 
his  arm. 

"  I  can  see,"  he  said,  more  amiably,  "  that 
such  a  relation  might  be  extremely  welcome 
to  many  deserving  and  very  capable  men. 
But  at  the  moment  I  regret  to  say  I  can 


76  March  Hares. 

think  of  none  to  recommend  to  you.  Besides, 
you  don't  know  me  from  Adam;  so  how 
could  I  give  a  character  to  any  one  else  ?  " 

"  I  beg  your  pardon  sir,"  rejoined  the  old 
gentleman,  "but  we  took  the  liberty  of  fol 
lowing  close  behind  you  all  through  the  last 
two  long  hallways.  You  were  apparently  so 
engrossed  with  your  subject  that  our  prox 
imity  escaped  your  attention,  but  we  have 
listened  with  the  deepest  interest,  and  I  may 
say  improvement  as  well,  to  everything  which 
has  fallen  from  your  lips.  I  have  thus,  sir, 
been  able  to  form  an  estimate  of  your  individ 
ual  characteristics  not  less  than  of  your  ac 
quirements.  I  may  add,  sir,  that  I  am  espe 
cially  impressed  by  the  fact  that  my  daughter, 
from  first  to  last,  displayed  an  exceptional 
eagerness  to  miss  nothing  of  your  discourse. 
As  the  principal  object  of  my  visit  to  Europe, 
as,  indeed,  of  my  whole  existence,  is  to 
provide  the  highest  forms  of  intellectual 
pleasure  and  edification  for  my  daughter,  I 
cannot  close  my  eyes  to  the  discovery  that 
your  remarks  upon  Assyrian  history  produced 


March  Hares.  77 

a  much  more  profound  impression  upon  her 
young  mind  than  anything  which  it  has  been 
within  the  scope  of  my  own  diminishing 
powers  to  produce  for  her  consideration.  I 
have  rarely  seen  her  so  absorbed,  even  at  our 
best  lectures." 

David  stifled  a  yawn,  and  made  a  little 
bow  in  which,  as  he  turned,  he  strove  to 
include  the  young  American  lady  whose 
culture  was  the  object  of  so  much  solicitude. 
His  movement  surprised  upon  her  coun 
tenance  an  expression  of  scornful  weariness, 
which  seemed  to  render  the  whole  face  alert 
and  luminous  with  feeling.  At  sight  of  his 
eyes,  her  sultana-like  features  composed  them 
selves  again  to  an  almost  stolid  tranquillity. 
She  regarded  him  with  indolence  for  an 
instant,  then  looked  calmly  away  at  things  in 
general.  There  was  to  be  read  in  that  tran 
sient  glance  a  challenge  which  stirred  his  blood. 

"  Well,  what  you  say  is,  beyond  doubt, 
flattering,"  he  remarked  to  the  father,  in  a 
slightly  altered  voice.  "It  might  be  that — 
that  I  could  find  some  one  for  you." 


78  Mwch  Hares. 


The  old  gentleman  bowed  ceremoniously. 
"  Permit  me  to  say,  sir,  that  I  have  found  the 
some  one — a  person  possessing  unique  quali 
fications  for  the  position  which  I  have  out 
lined.  I  need  nothing  now  but  the  power  to 
influence  his  decision  in  a  manner  favourable 
to  my  aspirations."  He  turned  to  Vestalia. 
"I  am  emboldened,  madame,  to  crave  your 
assistance  in  reconciling  your  husband  to  my 
project." 

Vestalia's  hand  fluttered  sharply  on 
David's  arm,  and  she  parted  her  lips  to 
speak.  At  the  moment,  there  was  audible 
a  derisive  sniff  from  the  daughter. 

"  It  is  my  rule  never  to  interfere,"  Vestalia 
answered  with  sudden  decision,  and  in  a 
coldly  distinct  voice.  "He  is  quite  capable 
of  settling  such  matters  for  himself."  She 
looked  from  father  to  daughter  and  back  with 
an  impressive  eye. 

Mosscrop  laughed  uneasily.  "Well — I'm 
afraid  you  must  take  it  that  this  is  settled — I 
scarcely  see  my  way  to  avail  myself  of  your 
very  complimentary  offer." 


March  Hwres.  79 

The  American  caught  the  note  of  hesita 
tion  in  his  voice.  "  Perhaps  you  will  turn  it 
over  in  your  mind,"  he  said,  fumbling  with  a 
hand  in  his  inner  breast-pocket.  "  Allow  me, 
sir,  to  hand  you  my  card.  Adele,  you  have  a 
pencil?  Thank  you.  I  will  inscribe  upon  it 
the  name  of  the  hotel  at  which  we  are 
residing." 

Mosscrop  took  the  card,  glanced  at  it, 
and  nodded.  "In  the  extremely  improb 
able  event  of  my  changing  my  mind,  I  will 
let  you  know,"  he  said.  "  Good  day." 

As  they  were  parting,  the  father  seemed  to 
read  in  the  daughter's  eye  that  he  was  forget 
ting  something.  He  hesitated  for  a  brief 
space;  then  his  kindly  face  brightened. 
"  Excuse  me,  sir,"  he  observed,  "  but  I  have 
neglected  to  inform  myself  as  to  your  identity 
— if  I  may  presume  to  that  extent." 

David  felt  vainly  in  his  pocket.  "I 
haven't  a  card  with  me.  My  name  is  David 
Mosscrop.  The  Barbary  Club  will  find  me. 
I  will  write  it  for  you." 

The  old  man  scrutinized  the  scrawl  in  his 


80  March  Hares. 

note-book,  and  then,  after  more  bows,  led  his 
daughter  away.  She  walked  after  him  in  a 
proudly  indifferent  fashion,  with  her  head  in 
the  air,  and  something  almost  like  a  swagger 
in  the  movements  of  her  form. 

Mosscrop  watched  them  with  a  ruminating 
eye  till  they  had  left  the  room.  Then  he 
glanced  at  the  card,  and  gave  a  little  laugh. 
"Mr.  Laban  Skinner,  Paris,  Kentucky. — 
Savoy  Hotel,"  he  read  aloud. 

"  Skinner  ?  Is  their  name  Skinner  ? " 
demanded  Vestalia  with  eagerness. 

"None  other.  Why?  It's  a  good  name 
for  them,  isn't  it?" 

"  Oh  yes — good  enough,"  the  girl  replied, 
speaking  now  with  exaggerated  noncha 
lance. 

"  Quaint  people  these  Americans  are  ! " 
commented  Mosscrop.  "  If  I  were  to  put 
that  old  chap's  speeches  down  literally  in  a 
book  nobody  would  credit  them.  Fancy  the 
fate  of  a  young  woman  condemned  to  be 
dragged  around  the  globe  chained  to  a 
preposterous  old  phonograph  like  that!  It 


Mar cli  Hares.  81 

really  wrings  one's  heart  to  think  of  it. 
Mighty  good-looking  girl  too." 

Vestalia  withdrew  her  arm.  "Perhaps," 
she  said,  icily,  "  if  you  were  to  make  haste  you 
might  overtake  them.  I  must  insist  on  your 
not  allowing  me  to  detain  you,  if  you  are  so 
interested.  I  shall  do  quite  well  by  myself." 

Mosscrop  gathered  her  meaning  slowly, 
after  a  grave  scrutiny  of  her  flushed  and 
perturbed  face.  When  it  came  to  him,  he 
shouted  his  merriment.  A  glance  around  the 
chamber  showed  him  that  they  were  alone 
with  the  lions  and  carved  effigies  of  Sardanapa- 
lus.  He  thrust  an  arm  about  Vestalia's  waist, 
and  gave  it  a  boisterous  though  fleeting  squeeze. 

"Why,  you  dear  little  canary-bird  of  a 
creature,  do  you  suppose  I've  been  forgetting 
you  ?  "  he  cried.  "  Haven't  I  been  thinking 
every  minute  of  the  touch  of  your  arm  in 
mine  ?  Haven't  I  been  cursing  that  old  wind 
bag  ceaselessly  because  he  was  interrupting 
our  birthday  ?  Look  up  at  me !  Truly  now, 
aren't  you  ashamed  ?  " 

She  suffered  him  to  raise  her  face,  his 


82  March  Hares. 

finger  under  her  chin,  and  she  made  a  brave 
effort  to  smile  back  at  the  glance  he  bent 
upon  her.  "  If  it  is  truly — oh,  ever  so  truly — 
still  our  birthday — the  same  as  it  was  before," 
she  made  wistful  answer. 

"  It  is  a  hundred  times  more  our  birthday 
than  ever ! "  he  protested  stoutly. 

An  elderly  keeper  in  uniform  shuffled  his 
way  into  the  room. 

"  Well  then,"  whispered  Vestalia,  "  let's  go 
somewhere  else  to  celebrate  the  rest  of  it.  All 
these  stone  animals  and  images  and  mummies 
— I  don't  feel  as  if  they  brought  me  luck  on 
my  birthday." 

So  they  wandered  forth  into  the  sunshine 
again,  and  Mosscrop  confessed  himself  glad 
of  the  change.  Where  should  they  go  ?  He 
found  himself  empty  of  suggestion.  Respon 
sibility  for  the  decorous  entertainment  of  a 
young  lady  in  the  daytime  was  a  novel  experi 
ence,  and  he  said  so. 

"  Oh,  let  us  just  stroll  about,"  she  urged. 
"  I  love  these  old  Bloomsbury  Squares.  They 
are  so  stupid." 


March  Hares.  83 

Luncheon  hour  came,  and  presented  itself 
to  Mosscrop  as  a  welcome  pretext  to  take 
a  hansom.  A  certain  formless  apprehension 
of  meeting  some  one  he  knew — though  why 
this  should  be  dreaded  he  could  not  for  the 
life  of  him  have  told — had  alloyed  the 
pleasure  of  his  ramble.  They  drove  to 
another  restaurant,  this  time  a  larger  place 
in  a  more  pretentious  quarter — and  though 
they  had  a  little  table  to  themselves,  the 
room  was  full  of  others. 

David  knew  about  luncheons  as  well  as 
breakfasts.  He  gave  the  waiter  very  minute 
instructions  about  having  a  grouse  split  and 
grilled,  and  he  ran  his  eye  over  the  list  of 
champagnes  with  the  confident  discrimination 
of  an  expert.  "  I  will  give  that  number  34A 
one  more  trial,"  he  said  to  the  butler.  "  Cool 
it  to  48,  and  we  will  see  what  it  is  like  then." 

Vestalia  noted  that  he  spoke  to  waiters 
in  a  soft,  grave  tone,  with  shades  of  gentle 
melancholy  and  of  affectionate  authority 
subtly  blended  in  it,  which  he  used  to  no  one 
else.  He  produced  the  impression  upon  her 


84  March  Hares. 

of  being  at  his  very  best  at  a  table.  She 
particularly  liked  him  when  he  took  the 
cork  from  the  butler,  and  tenderly  pinched 
with  thumb  and  finger  as  he  scrutinised  it, 
and  then  smiled  courteous  approbation  to  the 
servant.  This  person  wore  a  chain  round  his 
neck,  and  the  bottle  he  brought  was  swathed 
in  starched  napery — and  the  girl  observed 
both  with  the  interest  that  attaches  to  nov 
elty.  But  it  was  even  more  interesting  to  see 
how  perfectly  her  companion  presided  over 
everything. 

She  herself  was  much  less  at  ease.  David 
noticed  that  she  kept  her  hands  in  her  lap 
under  the  table  as  much  as  possible  during 
the  meal,  and  that  there  was  an  air  of  con 
straint  in  her  general  deportment  which  had 
been  lacking  at  breakfast.  He  put  it  down 
to  her  shyness  among  so  many  busy  people 
in  the  thronged  apartment,  and  talked  briskly 
at  intervals  to  re-assure  her.  Especially  he 
charged  himself  with  the  duty  of  keeping  her 
glass  filled,  and  he  was  almost  peremptory  in 
his  tone  with  her  about  the  grouse.  She  ate 


Ma/rcli  Hares.  85 

her  piece  to  the  end  with  meek  resolution 
after  that. 

When  they  were  again  in  the  open,  he 
rallied  her  upon  the  diffidence  she  had  dis 
played.  "  You  mustn't  mind  a  lot  of  fellows 
being  about,"  he  said  in  a  paternal  way. 
"They  go  where  there  is  the  best  kitchen, 
and  it's  the  part  of  wisdom  to  go  there  too ; 
besides,  they're  only  too  pleased  to  see  a  pretty 
face  among  them.  Didn't  you  feel  how  proud 
I  was  of  you,  all  the  while  ?  " 

Outside  she  had  quite  regained  her  spirits 
and  assurance.  She  smiled  with  frank  gaiety 
at  him.  "  I'll  tell  you  how  to  be  prouder 
still,"  she  said.  "  I  know  you  won't  mind  my 
saying  so — but  I  ought  really  to  have  some 
gloves." 

"  I'm  a  brute  not  to  have  thought  of  it," 
Mosscrop  reproached  himself.  "  Here's  a 
place,  just  at  hand.  I  can  come  in,  this  time, 
I  suppose,  without  question." 

She  held  up  a  finger  at  him,  in  mock  mo 
nition.  Then,  as  they  turned  to  enter  the 
shop,  she  whispered :  "  I  saw  that  American 


86  March  Hares. 

girl  looking  with  all  her  eyes  at  my  bare 
hands." 

"  Oh,  pshaw — lots  of  women  don't  wear 
gloves.  You  mustn't  be  so  suspicious  of 
everybody  that  looks  your  way.  A  hundred 
to  one  they're  thinking  about  themselves  all 
the  time." 

"Ah,  but  you  don't  know  women,"  she 
halted  midway  in  the  entrance  to  murmur. 
"  I  could  read  it  in  her  eyes  that  she'd  noticed 
I  had  no  ring." 

"  Well,  and  there  too,"  protested  Mosscrop, 
"  you  exaggerate  the  importance  of  the  thing. 
Lots  of  women  don't  wear  rings,  either — that 
is,  on  ordinary  occasions." 

She  danced  her  eyes  at  him  in  merriment. 
"  Perhaps  you  didn't  notice  that  I  was  sup 
posed  to  be  a  married  lady,"  she  said,  and  then 
turned  abruptly  to  the  counter. 


CHAPTER  V. 

"  AH  me !  Even  the  longest  and  happiest 
day  must  have  an  ending ! "  sighed  Vestalia. 

"  It  is  not  a  new  thought,"  replied  David. 
"  But  I  have  never  before  comprehended  how 
unwelcome  it  could  make  itself." 

They  spoke  to  each  other  in  soft,  regret 
ful,  musing  tones,  through  the  still  darkness 
of  the  clouded  summer  night.  They  had  been 
the  last  to  quit  the  Greenwich  boat,  on  its  last 
return  to  its  City  moorings,  and  they  halted 
for  a  moment  on  the  floating  pier  after  the 
others  had  gone — the  gentle  undulation  of  the 
tide  beneath  their  feet,  their  gaze  dwelling 
upon  the  black  silent  expanse  of  the  river. 

In  retrospect,  the  day  had  been  very  long 
indeed,  and  altogether  happy.  Its  structure 
of  delight  had  been  reared  on  the  simplest  and 

87 


88  March  Hares. 

most  innocent  of  foundations.  They  had  gone 
first  to  the  Zoological  Garden,  which  fortu 
itously  suggested  itself  to  Mosscrop's  mental 
search  as  an  unexceptional  resource.  Nor  did 
inspiration  fail  him  there,  for  when  the  great 
man-eating  cats  had  been  fed,  and  the,  foul 
hyenas  next  door  had  yelped  themselves 
hoarse,  and  the  charms  of  natural  history  had 
otherwise  begun  to  wane,  the  notable  thought 
of  the  fish  dinner  at  Greenwich  rose  with 
splendid  opportuneness  in  his  mind. 

It  was  after  this  feast,  while  the  two 
strolled  beneath  the  big  trees,  that  twilight 
found  them  out.  The  shadows,  as  they  deep 
ened  among  the  distant  shipping,  and  stole 
downward  to  dim  the  reflected  whiteness  of 
the  eastern  sky  beyond  the  river,  brought  rev 
erie  in  their  train.  Mosscrop  found  a  bitter 
taste  in  his  cigar,  and  lit  another  impatiently. 
The  girl  leant  upon  his  arm  with  a  new  sug 
gestion  of  dependence.  They  moved  down  to 
the  wharf  by  tacit  consent,  before  the  ap 
pointed  time,  and,  taking  their  seat  on  a  bench 
at  the  end,  looked  absently  at  the  water  with 


Mwch  Hares.  89 

but  an  occasional  word.  Evening  closed  in 
about  them  as  they  sat  thus.  Then  the  boat 
came,  and  they  went  on  board,  and  established 
themselves  in  relative  seclusion  at  the  stern, 
still  in  almost  unbroken  silence. 

And  now  the  completed  journey  lay  behind 
them  as  well.  They  stood  close  together, 
swaying  with  the  slight  motion  of  the  raft 
upon  the  lapping  waters,  and  ruminating 
sadly  upon  the  fact  that  their  day  was  done. 

"  We  finish  as  we  began — with  the  river," 
murmured  Vestalia.  She  trembled  to  his 
touch  as  she  spoke. 

"  Do  you  remember  Henley's  lines,"  said 
David,  meditatively — 

" '  The  smell  of  ships  (that  earnest  of  romance), 
A  sense  of  space  and  water,  and  thereby 
A  lamplit  bridge  ouching  the  troubled  sky, 
And  look,  0  look !  a  tangle  of  silvery  gleams, 
And  dusky  lights,  our  River  and  all  his  dreams, 
His  dreams  of  a  dead  past  that  cannot  die.' " 

"  No,  it  cannot  die,"  said  Vestalia,  slowly. 
"  But  its  burial  time  is  close  at  hand,  none  the 
less.  Ah,  the  beautiful  day ! " 


90  March  Hares. 

They  turned  and  paced  up  the  ascent,  and 
then  through  obscure,  deserted  thoroughfares 
made  their  way  at  length  to  the  open  space 
about  St.  Paul's.  The  clouds  had  parted,  and 
the  great  dome  loomed  in  immensity  against  a 
straggling  light  from  the  sky.  They  paused 
to  look  at  it,  and  while  they  stood  the  fleecy 
mists  far  overhead  cleared  away,  and  the 
round  moon's  full  radiance  flooded  the  pros 
pect.  Mosscrop  gazed  up  at  the  flaring  satel 
lite,  then  down  at  his  companion.  A  new 
thought  sparkled  in  his  eyes. 

"  And  ah,  the  beautiful  to-morrow,  too ! " 
he  said,  confidently.  "  My  good  child,  do  you 
conceive  that  the  world  comes  to  an  end  when 
the  sun  goes  down  ?  Am  I  less  your  friend  by 
moonlight  than  I  was  in  the  day-time  ?  Are 
we  changed  by  the  fact  that  the  lamps  are 
lit?" 

Vestalia  turned  her  face  into  the  shadow, 
and  said  nothing.  Mosscrop  felt  her  deep 
breathing  against  his  arm. 

"  You  have  been  very  dutiful  and  obedient 
all  day,"  he  began,  as  they  moved  along  to- 


March  Hares.  91 


ward  Ludgate  Hill.  "  I  repudiate  the  sugges 
tion  that  you  are  capable  of  mutiny  now.  Let 
us  speak  plainly,  dear  little  lady.  How  can  you 
suppose  that,  having  watched  over  you  all  day 
and  gladly  made  myself  responsible  for  your 
well-being  since  before  breakfast,  I  could  wash 
my  hands  of  you  now,  and  calmly  say  '  good 
bye  '  at  a  street  corner  ?  " 

"  You  have  been  very  very  kind,"  faltered 
Vestalia. 

"And  for  that  reason  it  follows  that  I 
should  be  very  callous  and  brutal  now,  does 
it  ?  I  don't  see  the  logic  myself." 

"  I  haven't  meant  that  at  all,"  she  inter 
posed  in  a  low  voice.  She  bent  her  head  so 
that  Mosscrop  could  not  see  her  face. 

"  We  will  develop  and  analyze  your  mean 
ings  at  our  leisure,"  he  said,  with  a  note  of 
authority.  "  It  is  more  important  for  the  mo 
ment  to  make  clear  what  /  mean.  The  facts 
are  simplicity  itself.  You  have  no  home,  no 
belongings,  no  place  to  sleep,  no  knowledge 
of  where  the  morning's  breakfast  is  to  come 
from.  You  are  a  beautiful  girl,  and  it  is  true 


92  March  Hares. 

our  civilisation  is  so  arranged  that  beautiful 
girls  rarely  starve  to  death.  I  do  not  recall 
having  heard  of  a  single  instance,  for  that 
matter.  But  your  position  makes  an  impera 
tive  demand  for  assistance  from  somebody. 
It  cried  aloud  for  help  at  an  early  hour  this 
morning.  It  happened  that  the  appeal  was 
heard  and  answered.  If  we  were  superstitious, 
we  should  call  it  providential." 

"  Oh,  but  I  do  ! "  protested  the  girl. 

"  Very  well,  then,  we  are  superstitious,  and 
it  was  providential.  These  things  are  gov 
erned,  I  am  informed,  by  immutable  laws. 
Ergo,  it  is  still  providential.  Who  are  we, 
that  we  should  fly  in  the  face  of  Providence  ? 
I  adjure  you  to  put  away  such  impious 
thoughts ! " 

A  little  sobbing  catch  of  the  breath  was 
her  only  answer.  He  divined  that  there  were 
tears  in  her  eyes,  and  slowed  his  pace  as  they 
walked  along  in  the  gloom  of  the  deserted 
descent.  At  the  bottom,  under  the  bridge, 
the  sparkling  lights  of  Fleet  Street  recalled 
to  him  that  shops  were  still  open. 


Mcvrcli  Hwres.  93 

"  I  mentioned  that  you  had  no  belongings," 
he  resumed,  after  they  had  traversed  the  Cir 
cus  in  silence.  "There  are  little  odds  and 
ends  of  things  that  you  want — the  necessities 
of  the  toilet,  et  cetera.  Here  is  a  shop ;  take 
this  sovereign  and  get  the  bits  of  haberdash 
ery  that  occur  to  you — such  as  a  lady  would 
put  in  her  dressing-bag  if  she  were  to  stop 
overnight  in  the  country.  I  will  go  across  the 
way  and  get  the  bag  itself,  and  come  back  for 
you." 

He  performed  his  part  of  the  enterprise 
with  an  almost  childlike  delight.  Ladies' 
dressing-bags  cost  more  than  he  had  imag 
ined,  but  the  shopman  said  he  would  take  a 
cheque.  David  found  something  to  his  mind 
— a  dainty  yet  capacious  trifle,  with  pretty  sil 
ver  flasks  ranged  on  one  side,  and  a  surpris 
ingly  comprehensive  collection  of  small  imple 
ments — scissors,  curling-tongs,  a  manicure  set, 
and  other  tools  the  significance  of  which  he 
could  not  even  guess — packed  about  in  quaint 
little  pockets  and  crevices.  The  outer  leather 
was  rich  to  the  eye  and  delicate  to  the  touch. 


94  March  Hares. 

A  few  doors  away  shone  the  symbolical 
red  and  blue  lights  of  a  chemist.  Hurrying 
thither,  he  flung  himself  eagerly  into  the  task 
of  buying  fluids  to  fill  those  imposing  flasks. 
The  shopman  advised  him,  at  first  coldly,  then 
with  rising  enthusiasm.  The  best  perfumes 
and  vinaigres  were  expensive,  certainly,  but 
then  they  were  the  best,  and  would  vouch  for 
themselves  to  any  cultivated  feminine  mind. 
There  were  recondite  soaps,  and  cosmetics  to 
thrill  any  gentle  heart.  And  in  the  matter  of 
brushes — here  were  some  silver-backed,  and 
the  comb  also — to  match  the  flasks.  So  the 
list  was  filled  out,  and  David  wrote  another 
cheque  with  a  proud  smile. 

Vestalia  stood  at  the  door  of  the  shop, 
waiting  with  a  small  paper  parcel  in  her 
hands.  Mosscrop  was  disappointed  at  its  size, 
and  thrust  it  into  the  bag  with  a  disdainful 
shove.  They  strolled  on  up  the  street,  and  he 
looked  into  every  lighted  window  with  a  hope 
ful  eye.  The  display  of  mere  masculine  or 
neutral  wares  affronted  him.  The  shopping 
fantasy  possessed  his  soul. 


March  Hares.  95 

"But  you  really  ought  to  have  them. 
You're  not  behaving  nicely  to  me  in  continu 
ally  saying  *  no,' "  he  urged  more  than  once, 
as  the  pressure  of  his  companion's  arm  drew 
him  away  from  the  tempting  windows.  She 
did  consent  at  last  to  the  purchase  of  some 
slippers — and  he  saw  to  it  that  they  were  the 
choicest  that  the  shelves  afforded — soft,  luxu 
rious  little  things,  with  satin  linings  and 
buckles  of  mother-of-pearl.  When  these  went 
into  the  bag,  it  was  filled.  He  recognised  the 
fact  with  a  regretful  sigh. 

The  creaking  old  clock-machinery  in  the 
belfry  of  St.  Clement  Danes  set  itself  in  mo 
tion  as  they  passed,  and  the  ancient  chimes 
clanged  out  the  full  hour.  It  was  nine  o'clock. 

"  I  had  some  thought  of  a  music-hall,"  he 
remarked.  "  But  we've  had  a  pretty  full  day 
— and  a  long  day,  too.  I  know  you  must  be 
tired." 

"  Perhaps — just  a  little,"  she  answered, 
softly. 

"  Then  we'll  go  home,"  he  said,  with  de 
cision. 


96  March  Hares. 

It  was  not  a  part  of  London  which  Vestalia 
knew  very  well.  Mosscrop  led  her  along  the 
Strand  for  a  little  way,  then  crossed  and  went 
up  a  side  street,  then  turned  into  a  still  nar 
rower  by-way.  The  ragged  loungers  on  the 
walk  had  an  evil  aspect,  and  almost  every 
building  seemed  to  be  a  public-house.  At  the 
last  corner  a  piano-organ  of  unusual  volume 
shook  the  air  with  deafening  mechanical  din. 
The  man  turned  the  crank  so  fast,  and  the 
dancing  children  in  the  radiance  from  the 
open-doored  tavern  on  the  pavement  raised 
such  a  racket  of  their  own,  that  she  could 
barely  distinguish  the  movement  of  the  vulgar 
tune.  On  the  borders  of  darkness  beyond 
were  discernible  still  other  children,  playing 
noisily  about  at  the  base  of  groups  of  fat 
women  in  fog-coloured  shawls  and  white 
aprons.  Over  all  the  tumult  and  squalid  clus 
terings  of  humanity  there  brooded  the  acrid, 
musty  stench  of  an  antique  mid-London  slum. 

The  two  turned  under  an  archway,  and  as 
by  magic  the  atmosphere  freshened  and  the 
hubbub  ceased.  A  small  square  of  venerable 


March  Hares.  97 

buildings  disclosed  itself  vaguely  in  the  uncer 
tain  light  from  the  sky.  Here  and  there  a 
lamp  behind  some  curtained  window  made  a 
dim  break  in  the  obscurity.  The  faint  sweet 
moaning  of  a  'cello  rose  from  somewhere  at 
the  farther  end  of  the  space.  A  stout  man 
with  a  gold  band  upon  his  tall  hat  revealed 
himself  for  a  noiseless  moment,  lifted  his  fin 
ger  in  salute  to  Mosscrop,  and  melted  away 
again  into  the  shadows.  Whether  they  had 
passed  him,  or  he  them,  Yestalia  could  hardly 
tell.  It  was  all  very  strange — and  a  little 
sombre.  A  streak  of  moonlight  glanced  down 
between  shifting  clouds,  and  fell  across  the 
fronts  of  the  houses  opposite.  There  were 
pale  grey  tablets  of  ornamentation  set  into 
their  mass  of  dusky  brickwork,  which  looked 
like  tombstones.  The  girl  trembled,  and  hung 
back  upon  Mosscrop's  arm  as  if  to  halt. 

Suddenly,  after  a  brief  preliminary  scale 
of  piano  notes,  a  woman's  clear,  practised 
voice  fell  upon  the  silence  in  a  song — a 
grave  and  simple  melody  full  of  tenderness. 
They  paused  to  listen  for  an  instant,  and 


98  March  Hares. 

Vestalia  traced  the  sound  to  an  illuminated 
upper  floor  at  the  end  of  the  square. 

"  Then  people  live  here  !  "  she  said,  with 
hesitating  re-assurance  in  her  voice. 

"  Bless  you,  yes,"  replied  David.  "  We 
live  here,  among  others." 

He  entered  the  open  doorway  of  the  house 
next  to  that  before  which  they  had  paused. 
The  hall  was  lighted  by  a  single  gas-jet  at  the 
rear,  which  only  deepened  the  darkness  of  the 
narrow  staircase  up  which  he  led  the  way.  It 
was  a  very  ancient  and  ricketty  staircase,  with 
steps  worn  into  queer  bumps  and  hollows  by- 
generations  of  feet.  There  was  not  room  for 
her  to  walk  abreast  of  her  guide.  He  strode 
ahead,  striking  matches  on  the  wall  as  he 
went.  She  followed  him  timorously  up  the 
winding  ascent,  noting  the  rows  of  names 
painted  on  the  big  closed  doors  of  each  land 
ing  they  passed. 

Mosscrop  stopped  only  when  the  stairs 
came  to  an  end.  He  put  down  the  bag,  and 
she  heard  the  rattle  of  a  key  in  a  lock.  Then 
a  match  was  struck,  and  a  sudden  flare  of 


March  Hares.  99 

gas   lit   up   the   small    square   hall-way    they 
stood  in. 

As  he  pushed  open  a  door  to  the  left,  he 
turned  with  a  smiling  face  towards  his  com 
panion.  He  discovered  her  drawn  back  at 
the  edge  of  the  stairs,  her  hands  pressed 
against  her  bosom.  Her  eyes  were  fastened 
on  him  with  a  troubled  look,  and  the  sound  of 
her  breathing,  quick  and  laboured,  reached 
his  ears. 

"  These  stairs  are  the  very  deuce  when 
you're  not  used  to  them,"  he  said,  pleasantly. 
"  I  oughtn't  to  have  rushed  you  up  them  at 
such  a  pace." 

"  That  doesn't  matter,"  panted  the  girl. 
"  It  is  I  who  oughtn't  to  have  come  up  at  *"' 
all." 

David's  smile  deepened  and  mellowed  as 
he  regarded  her.  "  My  dear  Vestalia,"  he  be 
gan,  laying  a  slight  and  kindly  stress  upon 
this  first  use  of  her  name,  "  you  speak  hastily. 
You  must  offer  no  further  remarks  until  you 
have  quite  recovered  your  breath.  I  will  em 
ploy  the  interval  by  calling  your  attention  to 


100  March  Hares. 

the  inscription  on  the  closed  door,  there,  op 
posite  to  mine.  You  will  observe  that  it  is 
*  Mr.  Linkhaw.'  Have  you  ever  heard  it  be 
fore  ?  " 

She  shook  her  head. 

"  And  are  you  conscious  of  no  novel  emo 
tions  at  hearing  it  now  ?  Does  not  the  sight 
of  those  painted  letters  cause  you  to  thrill 
with  strange  and  mysterious  sensations?  No? 
"What  becomes  then  of  the  boasted  intuition 
of  the  feminine  mind  ?  " 

There  seemed  to  be  a  jest  hidden  some 
where  in  all  this,  and  she  smiled  plaintively, 
dubiously.  She  took  her  hand  from  her 
breast,  to  show  that  her  breathing  was  calmer. 

"  You  really  assure  me,"  he  went  on,  with 
a  twinkling  eye,  "  that  the  spectacle  of  this 
particular  sported-oak  does  not  especially  stir 
your  pulses,  and  peculiarly  impress  your  im 
agination  ?  " 

"Why  should  it?" 

"  Why  indeed  !  Ah,  young  woman,  your 
sex  gets  much  credit  that  it  ill  deserves.  A 
mere  man  could  do  no  worse  in  the  matter  of 


Rwres.  101 


instinct.  My  dear  friend,  behind  that  door 
lies  your  present  abode.  That  name  '  Link- 
haw  '  is  the  sign  of  your  home  —  and  you 
looked  at  them  both  and  never  guessed 
it!" 

Vestalia  did  not  so  much  as  glance  at  the 
door  in  question,  but  she  gazed  with  much  in- 
tentness  at  Mosscrop.  "  I  don't  understand  — 
what  it  is  all  about  ?  "  she  said,  slowly. 

He  had  stepped  inside  his  own  door, 
lighted  the  gas  and  pulled  down  the  blinds. 
He  returned,  and  stretched  out  his  hand  to 
take  hers.  "  Do  me  the  honour  to  come  in 
and  sit  down,"  he  said,  holding  up  her  gloved 
fingers,  and  bowing  over  them.  "  You  are  my 
nearest  neighbour,  and  yet  you  have  never 
called  upon  me." 

She  followed  him  into  his  sitting-room, 
and  took  the  easy  chair  he  wheeled  out  toward 
the  table  for  her.  It  was  a  larger  apartment 
than  the  narrow  staircase  and  cramped  land 
ing  had  promised.  The  ceiling  was  low  and 
dreadfully  smoky,  it  was  true,  and  the  appoint 
ments  and  furniture  were  old-fashioned.  But 


102  March  Hwres. 

the  whole  effect,  if  somewhat  meagre  and  un 
adorned,  was  comfortable  and  honest. 

"  Put  off  your  hat  and  gloves,  and  look  as 
if  you  felt  at  home,"  urged  David.  "  You've 
but  a  step  to  go." 

He  busied  himself  meanwhile  in  bringing 
from  a  recess  of  the  sideboard  two  tumblers,  a 
heavy  decanter  filled  with  an  amber  liquid, 
and  a  big  bottle  of  soda  water. 

"You'll  join  me  in  some  whisky  and 
soda?"  he  asked  pleasantly,  fumbling  with 
the  wire. 

"  Oh  mercy,  no ! "  said  Vestalia.  "  Eeally 
I  mustn't  touch  anything  more.  I  see  now 
that  I  have  been  drinking  far  too  much,  all 
day  long." 

"  Tut ! "  he  answered.  "  How  could  there 
be  too  much  on  a  birthday?  And  now  I 
think  of  it,  there  were  two  of  them  !  I  pledge 
my  word,  it  has  been  a  singularly  dry  occasion 
for  a  double  birthday.  We  must  hasten  to 
make  good  the  deficiency." 

Vestalia  had  drawn  off  her  gloves.  She 
rose  now,  and  standing  before  the  mantel-mir- 


March  Hares.  103 

ror,  lifted  her  hat  from  her  head.  Then  she 
turned  and,  half-playfully,  half  in  pleading, 
shook  her  bright  curls  at  him.  "  I  thought  it 
was  going  to  be  different  hereafter,"  she  said, 
softly. 

He  looked  inquiry  for  an  instant,  then 
nodded  comprehension.  "  Ay,"  he  said,  with 
gravity,  "  you're  a  wise  virgin.  This  one  glass 
shall  last  me  the  night.  You  are  very  wel 
come  here,  my  lady ! " 

She  smiled  at  the  lifted  tumbler,  over 
which  his  eyes  regarded  her.  "  What  lots  of 
books  you  have!"  she  exclaimed,  a  moment 
later,  and  began  an  inspection  of  the  room, 
lingering  in  turn  before  each  of  the  old  prints 
on  the  dingy  walls,  and  examining  the  rows  of 
volumes  in  detail.  He  loitered  beside  her  for 
a  little,  passing  comments  on  what  seemed  to 
interest  her.  Then  he  disappeared  in  an  ad 
joining  room,  and  returned  presently  in  a  loose 
velveteen  jacket  and  slippers.  He  took  the 
famous  dressing-bag  from  the  table. 

"Your  visit  isn't  at  all  over  yet,"  he  re 
marked  ;  "  but  I  am  consumed  with  a  desire  to 


104  March  Hares. 

see  you  sitting  opposite  me,  here,  in  those  wee 
soft  slippers  of  yours.  It  will  make  a  sweet 
picture  for  me  to  carry  into  dreamland.  And 
so  first  I  will  show  you  your  new  home." 

She  followed  him  out  into  the  hall,  and 
then  through  the  doors  he  unlocked  into  the 
apartments  of  the  mysterious  "  Mr.  Linkhaw." 
The  first  room  disclosed  itself,  when  the  gas 
was  lit,  to  be  similar  to  David's  in  size,  but  all 
else  was  strangely  different.  The  Turkey  red 
carpet  was  brilliant,  almost  garish,  in  its  new 
ness,  and  the  ceiling  was  covered  with  a  bright 
pink  paper.  All  round  three  sides  were  broad 
divans,  heaped  with  soft  red  cushions  and 
downy  pillows.  No  chairs  were  to  be  seen. 
More  singular  still,  the  walls  were  crowded 
with  the  stuffed  heads  of  animals — bisons, 
bears,  moose,  elks,  antelopes,  wolves,  and  end 
less  varieties  of  deer.  Vestalia  gazed  at  these 
trophies  of  the  chase  with  surprise. 

"  Linkhaw  is  a  mighty  hunter  before  the 
Lord,"  Mosscrop  explained.  "  Yon  is  the  bed 
room.  It  is  fairly  carpeted  with  the  skins  of 
tigers,  lions,  leopards,  and  such  like  beasts.  If 


March  Hares.  105 

you  dream  of  jungles  and  Noah's  ark  to-night, 
and  don't  like  it,  we'll  throw  them  all  out  in 
the  morning." 

"  But  what  am  I  doing  in  this  Mr.  Link- 
haw's  rooms  ? "  inquired  the  girl.  "  I  don't 
understand  it  at  all.  Suppose  he  should 
come?" 

David  laughed  lightly.  "It's  a  far  cry 
from  Uganda  to  Dunstan's  Inn.  Or  maybe 
he's  in  the  Hudson  Bay  Territory.  It's  a  year 
and  more  since  I  knew  of  his  whereabouts. 
The  most  unheard-of  and  God-forgotten 
wilderness  on  earth — that's  where  you  may 
always  count  on  his  being,  unless  he  has 
learned  of  some  still  more  impossible  and  re 
pellent  wild,  just  discovered,  in  the  meantime. 
He  is  an  old  friend  and  school-fellow  of  mine, 
and  leaves  his  keys  with  me.  I  just  have  a 
look  at  the  place  now  and  then,  to  keep  the 
laundress  up  to  the  mark." 

He  passed  on  into  the  bedroom,  struck  a 
light,  and  threw  a  scrutinising  glance  round. 
"  You'll  be  needing  fresh  sheets  and  the  like," 
he  said,  returning.  "  I'll  bring  them." 


106  March  Ha/res. 

He  came  back  with  an  armful  of  linen,  and 
heaped  it  on  the  bed.  "  Now  you're  right  as 
a  trivet,"  he  cried,  cheerily.  "  Everything  has 
been  aired.  And  now  I'll  be  waiting  for  you 
to  come  back  to  me,  with  the  pretty  little 
slippers.  Mind,  I'm  capable  of  great  excesses 
in  drink  if  you  delay  over-long." 

Vestalia's  delay  was  inconsiderable.  They 
sat  for  an  hour  or  more,  she  with  the  dainty 
new  footgear  on  the  fender,  he,  lounging  low 
in  his  chair,  stretching  out  his  own  feet  close 
to  the  rail  beside  hers.  "  I  could  wish  it  were 
winter,"  he  mused,  once,  "so  that  we  might 
have  a  fire.  We  have  an  old  saying  about  two 
pairs  of  slippers  on  the  hearth.  I  never 
thought  before  what  homely  beauty  there  was 
in  it.  Ah,  there'll  be  cool  nights  coming  on 
now,  and  then  we'll  start  a  blaze.  But  even 
with  a  black  grate,  it  is  the  dearest  evening  of 
my  life." 

"  And  of  mine,"  responded  the  girl. 

Hours  later,  David  still  sat  by  the  empty 
fireplace,  and  ruminated  over  his  pipe.  He 
had  put  the  decanter  and  glass  resolutely  back 


March  Hwres.  107 

into  the  sideboard,  and  turned  a  key  on  them. 
He  had  taken  down  a  book,  but  it  lay  unre 
garded  on  the  floor  beside  him.  He  desired  to 
do  nothing  but  think,  and  yet  even  that  it  was 
not  easy  to  contrive.  Thoughts  would  not 
marshal  themselves  in  any  ordered  sequence. 

The  whole  day  had  yielded  an  extraordinary 
experience,  involving  all  thoughts  of  moment 
ous  possibilities,  which  he  said  over  and  over 
again  to  himself  demanded  the  coolest  and 
most  conservative  consideration.  But  when 
he  strove  to  fasten  his  mind  to  the  task, 
straightway  it  swerved  and  curveted  and 
danced  off  beyond  control.  ^  One  memory  re 
turned  to  him  ceaselessly :  the  way  Vestalia  had 
risen  finally  to  say  good-night,  and  insisted 
strenuously  on  his  not  quitting  his  chair,  and 
then,  all  at  once,  had  bent  swiftly  down  and 
kissed  him  before  she  ran  from  the  room. 
And  well,  why  not  ?  he  asked  himself  at  last ; 
why  shouldn't  he  abandon  himself  to  remem 
bering  it?  What  else  was  there  equally  well 
worth  recalling?  The  early  morning  on  the 

bridge  rose  again  before  him;  the  tenderly 
8 


108  March  Hares. 

compassionate  intimacy  which,  stealing  slowly 
over  them,  seemed  yet  to  have  burst  forth  in 
ripe  fulness  from  the  very  beginning ;  the  de 
lightful  meals  together,  the  long  walks  and 
talks,  the  little  gifts  which  brought  such  hap 
piness  to  the  donor  ;  the  languorously  sad 
dened  twilight  on  the  river,  the  silent  home 
coming,  the  surprise,  the  kiss — so  the  sweet 
chain  of  reverie  coiled  and  unfolded  itself, 
with  quickened  heart-beats  for  links. 

Once  a  thought  came  to  him — a  thought 
which  seemed  hard  and  cold  as  his  native 
granite,  and  rough  with  the  bristling  spikes  of 
his  own  hillside  heather — that  he  had  spent  in 
that  one  day  more'  than  his  whole  week's  in 
come.  In  other  times  the  fact  would  have 
disturbed  David.  Now  he  looked  it  calmly  in 
the  face,  and  smiled  at  it  derisive  dismissal. 
The  savings  of  a  year,  or  of  four  years — what 
were  even  they  when  weighed  in  the  balance 
against  the  fact  that  next  door,  under  these 
very  roof-beams,  the  dear  Vestalia  was  peace 
fully  sleeping? 

It  must  have  been  long  after  midnight 


Mwrch  Hares.  109 

when,  in  the  act  of  filling  his  pipe  once  more, 
it  occurred  to  him  to  go  to  bed  instead.  Upon 
reflection,  he  was  both  tired  and  sleepy.  He 
rose  and  yawned,  and  then  smiled  upon  his 
own  image  in  the  mirror  at  remembering  how 
happy  he  was  as  well.  It  was  a  queer  mess,  to 
be  sure,  but  there  was  no  element  in  it  which 
he  regretted  or  would  have  changed.  It  was 
all  delicious,  through  and  through. 

As  he  glanced  again  at  his  reflection  in  the 
glass,  and  warmed  his  heart  by  the  flame  of 
triumphant  joy  which  gleamed  through  the 
eyes  he  looked  into,  a  sudden  rhythmical  noise 
rose  upon  the  profound  stillness  of  the  old 
inn.  It  caught  his  ear,  and  he  turned  to 
listen. 

"  It  is  that  blessed  creature  snoring — breath 
ing,  I  mean,"  was  his  first  thought.  But  no, 
it  was  in  too  rapid  a  measure  for  that.  Then 
the  sound  waxed  louder,  and  he  recognised  that 
it  was  of  footsteps  steadily  ascending  the  stairs. 
"  The  watchman,  coming  to  make  sure  of  the 
lights,"  he  thought,  with  re-assurance. 

But  this  hypothesis  fell  to  the  ground  also. 


110  March  Hares. 

The  footsteps  mounted  to  the  landing  close 
outside.  The  noise  ceased,  and  then  there 
came  the  unmistakable  jingle  of  a  key — nay, 
the  very  grating  of  it  in  the  lock  of  the  door 
opposite. 

David's  veins,  for  a  confused  moment,  ran 
cold.  Then,  with  an  excited  ejaculation,  he 
ran  to  his  door,  and  flung  it  open. 

"  Stop  that,  you  idiot ! "  he  commanded,  in 
muffled  but  ferocious  tones. 

"  Ah,  Davie,  Davie !  Still  at  the  bottle ! " 
replied  a  well-known  voice  from  out  of  the 
obscurity. 


CHAPTEK  VI. 

MOSSCKOP  groaned  at  recognition  of  the 
voice  in  the  dark. 

"  Of  all  inopportune  creatures  in  the  animal 
kingdom ! "  he  bewailed  under  his  breath. 
"  Sh !  for  Heaven's  sake,  man,  don't  talk  so 
loud.  Come  inside  here,  and  walk  softly." 

"What  is  it  you're  stalking,  Davie — 
snakes  ?  "  queried  the  newcomer,  with  obvious 
sarcasm.  But  he  lowered  his  voice,  and  came 
forward  into  David's  room.  The  latter  closed 
the  door  noiselessly,  and  drew  a  long  sigh  of 
consolation.  The  two  men  looked  at  each 
other  for  a  minute  in  silence. 

"  You  don't  mean  that  there  are  burglars  in 
the  house  ?  "  asked  the  intruder.  A  gleam  of 
hopeful  light  shone  in  his  eyes  as  he  spoke, 

then  died  down  at  David's  shake  of  the  head. 
111 


112  Mwrch  Hcvres. 

j«*» 

The  Earl  of  Drumpipes,  in  the  peerage  of 

Scotland,  was  a  year  younger  than  his  friend 
the  Culdee  Professor.  The  gaslight  revealed 
him  now  to  be  a  tall,  burly,  rubicund  man, 
with  a  broad,  strongly-marked  face  of  a  severe 
aspect.  His  yellowish  hair  was  cut  close  over 
a  head  which  seemed  unduly  large  for  even  his 
powerful  frame,  and  was  thinning  towards 
baldness  on  the  top.  The  collar  of  a  woollen 
shirt  showed  a  good  deal  of  his  thick  neck, 
burnt  a  bright  red  at  the  back  by  a  fiercer  sun 
than  warms  these  British  islands.  His  promi 
nent  blue  eyes  bulged  forth  more  than  ever, 
now,  in  mystified  inspection  of  David's  coun 
tenance.  While  he  still  gazed,  it  occurred  to 
him  to  hold  out  his  hand,  as  mighty  as  a  black 
smith's,  in  perfunctory  greeting,  and  David 
took  it  with  an  effusiveness  which  was  novel 
to  them  both. 

"  I'm  really  delighted  to  see  you,  Archie. 
I  give  you  my  word  I  am  ! "  he  protested,  eagerly. 

"  You  have  your  own  way  of  showing  it," 
growled  the  other.  "Yet  you  seem  sober 
enough.  What  ails  you,  man?" 


March  Hares.  113 

"  Oh,  the  strangest  story ! "  said  David. 
"  Sit  down  here,  and  I'll  get  out  the  whisky." 
He  busied  himself  between  the  sideboard  and 
table,  talking  as  he  did  so,  while  the  other 
sprawled  his  large  bulk  in  one  of  the  easy  chairs 
and  lit  a  pipe. 

"  See  here,  Drumpipes,  damn  it  all,"  he  be 
gan,  "  I'm  a  gentleman,  am  I  not?  " 

if  You  are  a  professional  man,  a  person  of 
education,"  the  Earl  assented,  cautiously. 

"  Well,  this  is  the  first  day  in  long  years 
that  I  have  felt  like  a  gentleman." 

"  You  were  ever  a  bit  susceptible  to  hallu 
cinations,  Davie,"  said  the  other.  "  There's  a 
streak  of  unreality  in  your  nature.  Hold 
there !  Not  so  much  soda.  I'm  sore  in  need 
of  a  bath,  I  know ;  but  everything  at  its  proper 
time.  Well,  go  on — how  are  you  accounting 
for  this  extraordinary  occurrence?  You've 
felt  all  day  like  a  gentleman !  It  arouses  my 
curiosity." 

"  Chuck  that,  Archie,  or  you'll  hear  noth 
ing  at  all." 

"  Very  well,  my  boy.     I'll  just  drink  this, 


114  March  Hares. 

then,  and  go  to  my  bed.     It  will  be  welcome,  ' 
I  can  tell  you." 

He  drained  the  tumbler,  and  made  as  if  to 
rise.  David  hurled  himself  forward  with  a  re 
straining  arm.  "Don't  be  an  ass,  old  man! 
I've  told  you  once,  you  mustn't  go  near  your 
place  to-night,"  he  urged  petulantly.  "I'll 
give  you  my  bed,  and  I'll  sleep  on  the  sofa 
here.  It's  all  right,  I  assure  you.  If  you 
must  know,  there  is  somebody  sleeping  in  your 
room." 

The  Earl  frowned  up  at  his  friend.  "  That 
was  not  in  the  bargain,  Mosscrop,"  he  said, 
with  sharpness.  "  I  don't  like  it." 

"  All  I  can  say  is,"  retorted  David,  "  that 
if  you'd  been  in  my  place  you'd  have  done  the 
same  thing — or  no,  I'm  not  so  sure  about  that ; 
but  under  the  circumstances  it  was  the  only 
thing  /  could  do.  It's  a  young  lady  who  is 
occupying  your  room,  Drumpipes." 

"Aha!"  cried  the  Earl,  "let's  have  her 
out !  I'm  not  so  sleepy  as  I  thought.  You 
can  do  something  in  the  way  of  a  supper, 
can't  you?" 


March  Ha/res.  115 

"  No,  I  can't,  and  if  I  could  I  wouldn't. 
You  misapprehend  the  situation  entirely,  my 

friend.  This  is  a  poor  girl  who "  and 

David  went  on  and  told,  in  brief  fashion,  the 
story  of  the  day. 

"  Nine  pounds  odd  your  whistle  cost  you, 
eh,  Davie?"  was  the  listener's  comment,  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  narrative.  "  Well,  each 
man  has  his  own  notion  of  what  he  wants  for 
his  money.  It  is  not  mine,  I'll  say  frankly. 
And  what's  the  programme  for  to-morrow? 
South  Kensington  Museum  and  Hampton 
Court?  The  next  day  you  might  do  the 
Tower  and  Epping  Forest.  Then  Westmin 
ster  Abbey  and  Eichmond — but  you'll  come 
soon  to  the  end  of  your  rope.  And  sooner, 
still,  I'm  thinking,  to  the  end  of  your  banking 
account." 

"  That's  my  affair,"  returned  Mosscrop, 
testily. 

"I  might  be  said  to  have  some  small 
concern  in  the  matter,"  Drumpipes  observed, 
"  seeing  that  I  provide  furnished  lodgings  for 
this  beautiful  experiment  in  combined  philan- 


116  Mwrch  Hares. 

thropy  and  instruction.  But  you're  drink 
ing  nothing." 

"  No ;  I  had  my  one  glass  before  you 
came.  I'm  taking  care  of  myself  these 
days." 

"  And  high  time,  too  ! "  admitted  the  can 
did  friend.  "  I'll  not  say  you'll  not  be  the 
better  for  it." 

"  Well,  and  don't  you  see  ? "  urged  Moss- 
crop,  with  earnestness,  "it's  just  the  fact  of 
her  being  there  yonder  that  makes  it  seem 
worth  while  to  go  to  bed  sober.  It  alters  my 
whole  conception  of  myself.  It  gives  me  en 
tirely  new  ideas  of  what  I  ought  to  do.  So 
long  as  I  led  this  solitary  life  here  there  was 
nothing  for  me  but  to  drink.  But  it's  differ 
ent  now." 

The  Earl  grinned.  "And  how  long  will 
you  be  content  to  have  this  improving  influ 
ence  radiated  to  you  from  across  the  pas 
sage  ?  "  he  asked,  with  cynicism.  "  Supposing, 
of  course,  that  I  give  up  my  rooms  to  the  re 
form-dynamo,  so  to  speak." 

"  Oh,  of  course,  no  one  is  asking  that  of 


March  Hares.  117 

you.  Obviously,  your  return  makes  other  ar 
rangements  imperative." 

"What  will  the  other  arrangements  be 
like?" 

"  That  remains  to  be  seen.  But  I'm  quite 
clear  about  one  thing.  I  will  not  turn  back 
from  what  I  have  undertaken.  She  shall  not 
know  what  want  is,  and  she  shall  be  respected. 
I  swear  that,  Drumpipes ;  and  I  want  you  to 
remember  it." 

"  Oh,  I  respect  her  immensely  already," 
said  the  Earl.  "  By  George,  a  girl  must  pos 
sess  extraordinary  qualities  who  can  come  out 
early  and  catch  a  Professor  of  Culdees  off  her 
own  bat,  and  work  him  for  a  tenner,  and  then 
leave  him  to  forswear  whisky  on  one  side  of  a 
passage  while  she  sleeps  the  sleep  of  the  just 
in  borrowed  apartments  on  the  other.  It's 
really  splendid,  old  man.  I  take  off  my  hat 
to  her." 

"Archie,"  remarked  David,  slowly,  "I'm 
smaller  than  you  are,  and  no  athlete,  God 
knows;  but  if  we  have  any  more  of  that  I 
will  hit  you  in  the  eye,  and  chance  it." 


118  March  Hares. 

Drumpipes  was  amused  at  the  notion,  and 
chuckled.  Then  his  face  and  voice  lapsed 
into  solemnity.  "Davie,"  he  said,  "I've  no 
wish  to  vex  you,  but  it's  a  bad  business. 
You'll  not  win  your  way  through  without 
much  expense  and  soreness  of  heart.  You 
can  take  that  from  me,  who  should  know  if 
any  man  does." 

Mosscrop  accepted  the  portentous  gravity 
of  the  tone  in  good  faith.  He  nodded,  as  he 
looked  hard  at  his  friend.  "  Ay,  I  know,"  he 
said,  softly.  "  But  I  have  no  despair,  and  few 
doubts  about  it  all,  Archie.  I  am  very  happy 
in  the  thought  of  going  forward  with  it ;  so 
happy  that  I  see  I  never  knew  what  happi 
ness  meant  before.  And  if — we'll  put  it  at 
the  worst  possible — if  disappointment  should 
come  out  of  it,  why,  I  shall  already  have  had 
the  joy.  And  even  if  it  broke  me,  what 
would  it  matter?  I  should  only  be  back 
again  where  I  was  yesterday,  and  no  one  on 
earth  would  be  the  worse  for  that.  But  with 
you  it  was  different." 

The  Earl  nodded  in  turn,  and  smoked  his 


March  Hares.  119 

pipe.  At  last,  without  lifting  his  voice  or  dis 
closing  special  interest  in  his  news,  he  said, 
"  Man,  she's  dead." 

David's  eyes  dilated.  "What's  that — she 
— your  wife,  do  you  mean,  is  dead  ?  " 

"Ay,  four  months  since,"  replied  the 
other  quietly. 

Mosscrop  came  over  and  shook  hands  with 
his  friend.  "I  will  take  a  drink  with  you, 
after  that,"  he  said,  and  filled  a  glass.  "  Tell 
me  about  it." 

"  I  know  nothing  about  it — except  that  she 
is  dead.  That  is  enough,  quite  enough."  He 
lifted  his  tumbler.  "Here's  to  the  heating 
arrangements  in  the  warmest  corner  down 
below." 

"A  foul  cat!"  said  David,  with  a  harsh 
tremor  in  his  voice,  sipping  the  toast. 

"A  very  pretty  woman,"  answered  the 
Earl,  musingly.  "  Hair  like  a  new  primrose, 
face  like  an  earl  Christian  martyr,  dearest 
little  feet  you  ever  imagined.  You  never  saw 
her.  You  would  have  wanted  to  die  for  her 
on  the  spot.  She  would  have  made  a  single 


120  March  JIares. 

bite  of  you,  my  friend.  I  was  a  good  deal 
tougher  mouthful,  but  I  got  mangled  more  or 
less  in  the  operation.  These  are  the  things 
that  make  one  grateful  for  the  religious  in 
fluences  of  childhood.  I  should  be  down 
hearted  just  now  if  I  were  not  able  to  believe 
in  a  Hell." 

"  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  thing— she 
is  really  dead  ?  " 

"  Dead  as  a  mackerel,  thank  God.  My 
lawyers  certify  to  the  blessed  event.  They 
ought  to  know.  They  have  stood  in  the 
breach  for  four  years,  warding  off  writs,  in 
junctions,  mandamuses,  and  appeals,  with 
which  she  and  the  unscrupulous  scoundrels, 
her  solicitors,  bombarded  them.  The  costs 
those  ancient  parties  must  have  charged  up 
against  me !  Man,  I'm  fair  frightened  to  go 
into  the  City  and  face  them.  There  are  three 
attempts  at  judicial  separation,  one  divorce 
suit,  two  petitions  for  restoration  of  conjugal 
rights,  three  examinations  of  witnesses  by 
commission,  four  appeals — the  thought  of 
those  bills  sickens  me,  Davie." 


March  Hares.  121 

"You're  well  out  of  the  noose  at  any 
cost." 

"  Well,  then,  if  your  neck  is  free,  keep  it 
so,  man !  " 

David  smiled  with  gentle  self-assurance. 

"  Ah,  laddie,  if  you  could  have  seen  the 
innocence  of  her.  She  drank  Capri  at  break 
fast,  and  then  champagne  at  luncheon,  and 
more  of  the  same  at  dinner,  with  old  tawny 
port  on  top  of  it — all  as  trustingly  and  con 
fidingly  as  a  babe.  It  softened  one's  heart  to 
see  her  lack  of  guile,  her  pretty  inexperience." 

The  Earl  sniffed  audibly.  "  Ch,  ay,  it's  a 
beautiful  spectacle,  no  doubt,  and  very  touch 
ing.  The  pity  is  that  magistrates  will  not 
always  view  it  in  that  light  next  morning. 
But  then  so  many  things  look  different  in  the 
morning." 

Again  Mosscrop  smiled.  "  Save  your 
moans,  Archie,"  he  advised,  "  till  you  see  her 
yourself.  You'll  meet  the  lady  at  breakfast." 

"  I'm  damned  if  I  do,"  said  Drumpipes. 

"Now  then,  you're  talking  like  an  idiot. 
You,  a  hunter  of  lions  and  crocodiles  and 


122  March  Hares. 

wild  asses  of  the  desert,  to  turn  tail  and  run 
from  one  wee  yellow-headed  lassie !  and 
desert  an  old  friend,  moreover,  who  needs 
your  advice  and  judgment  in  the  most  im 
portant  matter  of  his  life  !  You  know  you're 
flatly  incapable  of  it." 

"I'll  not  promise  to  be  civil  to  her  if  I 
stop,"  the  other  growled.  "  The  mere  thought 
of  yellow-haired  women  is  nauseating  to  me. 
Why  on  earth,  man,  if  you  must  make  a 
stark-staring  lunatic  of  yourself,  could  you 
not  hit  on  a  decent  and  reputable  colour  ?  " 

"Never  a  dye  has  touched  it,"  protested 
David.  "  It's  as  natural  as  the  sunshine — and 
as  radiant." 

"  Then  you're  a  ruined  man,  Davie,"  the 
Earl  gravely  declared,  between  puffs  at  his 
pipe.  "  There  may  be  some  saving  quality  in 
a  woman  who  merely  dyes  her  hair.  An  hon 
est  nature  may  persist  beneath  the  painted 
wig,  in  spite  of  her  endeavours.  But  if  she's 
a  tortoise-shell  tabby  born,  then  you  might 
better  be  dead  than  sitting  there  mooning 
about  her.  I  give  you  up  as  a  lost  creature  !  " 


March  Hares.  123 

"  Then  all  the  more  reason  you  should 
help  me  to  cook  a  fine  breakfast,  to  confront 
my  doom  upon,"  replied  Mosscrop,  lightly. 
"  I  didn't  quite  promise  that  I'd  call  her  in 
time  to  assist.  It  will  be  more  of  a  surprise 
to  have  it  all  ready,  spread  in  her  honour, 
when  she  comes  in.  What  do  you  think  of 
soft  roes  grilled  on  toast,  eh?  You  can  get 
them  in  tins.  And  some  little  lamb  cutlets — 
or  perhaps  venison — and  then  some  eggs 
Bercy — you  do  those  fit  for  a  queen,  and  we 
might  have " 

"  The  truth  is,"  put  in  the  other,  reflect 
ively,  "  that  black  is  the  only  wholly  satisfy 
ing  hair  for  a  woman.  The  intervening  com 
promises — all  the  browns  and  chestnuts  and 
reds  and  auburns — are  a  delusion.  I  see  that 
very  clearly  now.  Give  me  the  hair  that 
throws  a  purplish  shadow,  glossy  and  thick 
and  growing  well  down  upon  the  forehead, 
and  then  a  straight-nosed  face,  wide  between 
the  eyes  and  rounded  under  the  chin,  and  a 
complexion  of  a  soft,  pale  olive.  There's 

nothing  else  worth  talking  about." 
9 


124  MarcJi  Hares. 

"  I  had  thought  of  those  small  Italian 
\  sausages,  but  I  don't  know  that  in  hot  weather 
they " 

"Oh  rot!"  said  the  nobleman.  "Who 
wants  to  talk  about  muffins  and  ham  fat  at 
this  time  of  night  ?  Have  you  no  poetry  in 
you,  man?  There  was  a  divine  creature  on 
the  steamer  coming  over — great  eyes  like  a 
sloe,  and  the  face  of  a  Circassian  princess, 
calm,  regal,  languid,  yet  with  depths  of  pas 
sion  underneath  that  seemed  to  call  out  to  you 
to  risk  your  immortal  soul  for  the  sake  of 
drowning  in  them " 

"  My  word,  here  is  cheek,  if  you  like ! " 
burst  in  Mosscrop,  stormily.  "  You  won't  let 
me  talk  about  my  girl  at  all ;  you  sneer  and 
gibe  and  croak  evil  suspicions,  and  make  a 
general  nuisance  of  yourself  at  the  least  men 
tion  of  her — and  then  you  suppose  I'm  going 
to  sit  patiently  and  listen  to  such  blithering 
twaddle  as  this.  Damn  it  all,  a  man's  got 
some  rights  in  his  own  room ! " 

"  I'm  told  not,"  commented  the  Earl, 
grimly. 


Mar cli  Hares.  125 

"  Now,  why  hark  back  to  that  ?  "  demanded 
David,  with  a  show  of  petulance.  "  It's  all 
settled  and  done  with,  hours  ago.  But  what 
I  was  saying  was,  it  isn't  the  decent  thing  for 
you  to — to  obtrude  talk  of  that  sort  just  to 
throw  ridicule  on  a  subject  that  I  feel  very 
keen  about." 

Drumpipes  yauned  frankly.  "  It's  time 
you  turned  in,  Davie,"  he  remarked.  "  The 
lack  of  sleep  aye  makes  you  silly.  I've  no 
wish  to  ridicule  your  subject,  as  you  call  her. 
It's  not  at  all  necessary.  You'll  see  for  your 
self  how  ridiculous  it  is  in  the  morning.  It 
merely  occurred  to  me  that  if  we  must  talk  of 
women,  I'd  something  in  my  mind  worth  the 
while — no  strolling  yellow-headed  vagrant 
picked  up  at  random  on  a  bridge,  but  a  gen 
tlewoman  in  education  and  means  and  man 
ners.  Man,  you  should  see  her  teeth  when 
she  smiles ! " 

"Archie,"  replied  David,  solemnly,  "I 
should  think  your  own  better  instincts  might 
prompt  you  to  recall  that  you've  only  been  a 
widower  four  months." 


126  March  Hares. 

"  Four  months  ? — Four  hundred  years  !  " 
cried  the  Earl,  stoutly.  He  reached  round  and 
replenished  his  glass.  "  It  is  with  the  great 
est  difficulty  that  I  recall  any  detail  of  the 
matrimonial  state.  CAlready  the  memory  of 
my  first  pair  of  breeks  is  infinitely  fresher  to 
me  than  any  of  it*-.  In  another  week  or  so  the 
last  vestige  of  a  recollection  of  it  will  be  clean 
gone.  And  a  good  riddance,  too  ! " 

"  It  was  an  ill  thought  to  remind  you  of 
it,"  admitted  Mosscrop.  "Devil  take  all 
women — or  all  but  one " 

"And  she  black-haired,"  interposed  the 
Earl. 

"  Deuce  seize  them  all  but  two,  then,  for 
the  rest  of  the  night.  Where  have  you  been 
the  long  year-and-a-half ,  Archie  ?  " 

"Just  looking  about  me,"  replied  the 
other,  with  nonchalance.  "  Bechuanaland  for 
a  time,  but  it's  sore  overrated.  Then  I  had  a 
shy  at  the  Gaboon  country,  but  there's  a  con 
spiracy  among  the  niggers  to  protect  the 
gorilla — I  think  he's  a  sort  of  uncle  of  theirs 
— and  a  white  man  can  do  no  good  by  himself. 


March  Hares. 


I  thought  there  might  be  some  decent  sport 
over  in  Brazil,  where  they  advertised  a  revolu 
tion  on,  and  I  tried  to  travel  around  with  the 
rebels  for  a  while,  but  it  wasn't  up  to  much. 
You  brought  down  an  occasional  half-breed 
Portugueser  with  epaulettes  on,  but  you 
couldn't  eat  'em,  and  you  didn't  want  'em 
stuffed  at  any  price;  and  besides,  when  you 
came  to  find  out,  the  whole  war  was  merely  a 
fight  between  two  firms  of  coffee-traders  in  - 
New  York,  and  that  wasn't  good  enough.  I 
tell  you  what,  though,"  he  went  on,  with  more 
animation,  "  Arizona  is  damned  good  fun.  I 
haven't  seen  anything  better  anywhere  than  a 
good,  square  cattle-lifter  hunt.  They  got  up 
three  or  four,  just  on  my  account,  I  imagine, 
after  they  found  I  could  ride,  and  shoot  at  a 
gallop.  The  charm  of  the  thing  is  that  there's 
no  close  season  for  cattle-thieves,  and  they're 
game  to  the  death,  I  tell  you.  I  got  potted 
twice,  and  once  they  let  daylight  straight 
through  me.  I  had  to  lie  up  for  repairs  for 
nearly  three  weeks.  They  went  and  hung  the 
fellow  while  I  was  in  bed.  We  had  words 


128  March  Sores. 


about  that.  I  insisted  it  wasn't  sportsmanlike 
— and  that  they  ought  to  have  given  him  a 
horse,  and  then  sprung  him  out  of  a  trap  or 
something  of  that  sort,  and  let  him  have  a  run 
for  his  money,  the  same  as  we  do  with  rabbits 
that  the  ferrets  bring  up.  But  they  couldn't 
see  it,  and  so  I  turned  it  up  and  came  North. 
They'll  ruin  the  whole  thing,  though,  if  they 
don't  chuck  that  foolish  hanging  business. 
The  first  thing  they  know,  everybody'll  stop 
running  off  cattle,  just  as  a  protest,  and  then 
their  place  won't  be  worth  living  in.  It'll  be 
a  pity,  because  a  cow-boy  gone  wrong  is  really 
the  best  thing  there  is.  He's  as  good  as  a 
Bengal  tiger  and  a  Eussian  wolf  together,  with 
a  grizzly  bear  thrown  in.  You  may  quote  me 
as  saying  so." 

"I  shall  not  fail  to  do  so,"  said  David. 
"  Come,  drink  up  your  liquor,  and  we'll 
toddle.  I'm  fair  glad  to  see  you  back  whole 
and  sound,  laddie — and  more  still,  a  free 
man." 

He  brought  forth  from  the  bedroom  a 
pillow  and  some  blankets,  and  began  arrang- 


March  Hcvres.  129 

ing  them  upon  the  sofa.  "And  are  the 
Americans  so  daft  about  lords  and  titles  as 
they're  made  out?"  he  asked  as  he  worked. 
"  Did  they  humble  themselves  before  the 
handle  to  your  name  ?  " 

Drumpipes  sat  up.  "  Do  you  suppose  I'm 
such  an  abandoned  ass  as  to  travel  with  a 
title  ? "  he  demanded.  "  Man,  if  you  knew 
what  it  cost  me,  even  without  it,  it  would  turn 
your  hair  grey.  Ten  dollars  here,  twenty 
dollars  there,  seven  dollars  and  a-half  some 
where  else — one  steady  and  endless  drain  on 
the  purse,  till  the  marvel  is  I  was  able  to  get 
out  at  all !  And  there's  no  third-class  on  the 
railways  whatever.  It's  just  terrible,  Davie ! 
And  as  ill-luck  would  have  it,  I  couldn't  even 
come  home  steerage  on  the  steamer.  There 
were  passengers  that  I  knew  in  the  first  cabin, 
and  so  I  had  to  throw  away  more  money 
there.  And  I'm  not  like  you — I've  no 
ten-pound  notes  to  spare  for  my  day's  amuse 
ment." 

"No,  you're  not  like  me,"  responded  Moss- 
crop,  in  no  sympathetic  tone.  "  I  have  my 


130  March  Hares. 

magnificent  £432  per  annum,  which  is  over 
eight  guineas  a  week.  And  you — you  have 
only  a  paltry  four  thousand  odd,  not  more 
than  ten  times  as  much.  I  wonder  you've 
kept  off  the  rates  so  long,  Archie." 

"  Ah,  I  know  all  that,"  protested  the  Earl. 
"But  you  have  no  damned  position  to  keep 
up.  You  must  remember  that,  Davie,  It's  a 
very  important  fact.  It  makes  all  the  differ 
ence  in  the  world." 

"  But  you  only  keep  it  up  in  your  own 
mind,  and  that's  not  an  expensive  place. 
There's  "been  no  year  since  I  first  knew  you, 
either  as  Master  of  Linkhaw  or  since  you 
came  into  the  whole  of  it,  that  you've  spent 
the  half  of  your  income.  To  hear  you  talk, 
one  would  think  you'd  been  scattering  your 
capital  as  well  with  both  hands." 

"  Ah,  but  those  lawyers'  bills,  Davie ! 
What  think  you  now  should  they  be  like? 
Six  hundred,  eh  ?  Or  may  be  seven  ?  " 

"You'll  know  soon  enough.  I'll  not  en 
courage  you  to  pass  a  sleepless  night.  Come 
now.  You've  got  things  in  your  bag  here, 


March  Ha/res.  131 

haven't  you  ?  I  can  let  you  have  whatever 
you  lack." 

"No,  you  keep  your  bed.  I'll  sleep  out 
here,"  said  Drumpipes.  "I'm  a  deal  more 
used  to  roughing  it  than  you  are.  I  give  you 
my  word,  I  shall  sleep  here  like  a  top." 

Mosscrop  strove  to  resist,  but  his  friend 
was  resolute,  and  the  sofa  had  to  be  surren 
dered  to  him.  He  rose,  yawning,  and  began 
to  throw  off  his  outer  garments.  "  I've  paid 
as  high  as  eleven  shillings  for  a  bedroom  for 
one  night  in  ISTew  York  city ! "  he  affirmed, 
drowsily,  "  although,  to  give  the  Devil  his  due, 
they  make  no  charge  for  candles  and  soap., 
Man,  if  they'd  known  I  was  an  Earl,  they'd 
have  lifted  all  seven  of  my  skins." 

"  Oh,  but  they  have  a  reputation  for  acu 
men,"  urged  Mosscrop,  drily.  "  They'd  have 
comprehended  fine  that  you  were  but  a  Scotch 
Earl.  Good  night ! " 

The  broad  daylight  woke  David  up  nearly 
an  hour  later  than  it  should  have  done.  He 
had  produced  upon  himself  during  the  night 
an  impression  of  sleeping  very  little— and  that 


132  March  Hares. 

a  light  and  dainty  slumber,  ready  and  eager 
on  the  instant  of  need  to  dissolve  into  utter 
wakefulness.  Yet  it  was  the  fact,  none  the 
less,  that  he  had  ingloriously  overslept  him 
self.  The  watch  on  his  table  pointed  to  half- 
past  eight. 

He  hurriedly  drew  on  some  of  his  gar 
ments,  and  stepped  into  the  sitting-room  to 
rouse  the  Earl.  To  his  great  surprise  that 
nobleman  had  disappeared.  The  tumbled 
bed-clothes  showed  where  he  had  slept.  There 
was  his  hand-bag,  duly  packed  and  closed,  at 
the  foot  of  the  sofa. 

Reasoning  that  Drumpipes  had  not  prom 
ised  to  breakfast,  and  was  a  perverse  creature 
anyway,  and  probably  had  been  worried  by 
early  brooding  over  those  lawyers'  bills  into  a 
restless  mood,  Mosscrop  returned  to  his  room, 
and  completed  the  work  of  dressing.  He 
shaved  with  exceptional  care,  and  bestowed 
thought  upon  the  selection  of  a  neck-tie.  It 
occurred  to  him  that  he  had  some  better 
clothes  than  those  he  had  worn  yesterday,  and, 
though  he  begrudged  the  time,  the  temptation 


March  Hares.  133 

to  make  the  change  was  irresistible.  He  did 
not  regret  yielding,  when  he  surveyed  his  full- 
length  image  in  the  mirror  on  his  wardrobe 
door.  He  seemed  to  himself  to  look  years 
younger  than  he  had  done  before  that  momen 
tous  birthday.  He  smiled  and  nodded  knowing 
ly  at  the  happy  and  confident  face  in  the  glass. 
Under  the  circumstances,  he  should  need 
help  with  the  breakfast.  The  midnight  notion 
of  getting  everything  ready  before  he  called 
his  guest,  submitted  to  abandonment  without 
a  murmur.  He  reverted  joyfully  to  the  origi 
nal  idea  of  letting  her  share  all  the  delightful 
fun  of  preparing  the  meal.  His  fancy  played 
with  sportive  tenderness  about  the  picture  of 
her,  here  in  his  tiny  scullery  which  served  as 
a  kitchen,  her  sleeves  rolled  up,  a  towel  pinned 
round  her  waist  for  an  apron,  actually  cooking 
things  for  them  both  to  eat.  Very  likely  he 
knew  more  about  that  sort  of  thing  than  she 
did  ;  he  beheld  himself  giving  her  instructions, 
as  they  bent  together  over  the  big  gas  cooking- 
stove.  Could  anything  be  more  deliciously 
homelike  than  that? 


134  March  Hares. 

That  contrary,  cross-grained  Drumpipes 
had  predicted  that  the  whole  thing  would 
seem  ridiculous  to  him  in  the  morning.  He 
affirmed  to  himself  with  fervour  that  it 
seemed  more  charming  than  ever  as  he  went 
out  into  the  passage,  and  knocked  on  the  op 
posite  door. 

There  seemed  to  be  no  answering  sound, 
and  he  struck  the  panel  more  sharply,  with 
his  ear  lowered  to  the  keyhole.  Still  no  re 
sponse  came. 

"I  am  going  to  Covent  Garden  for1  a  few 
minutes,"  he  called  through  the  keyhole ; 
"  shall  I  find  you  ready  to  help  me  when  I 
get  back?" 

Since  this,  too,  brought  no  reply,  he  took 
out  his  duplicate  key  and  cautiously  opened 
the  door.  The  question,  repeated  in  a  much 
louder  tone,  died  away  in  profound  silence. 
The  glass  eyes  of  a  moose  on  the  wall  opposite 
stared  at  him  with  an  uncomfortable  fixity. 

The  bedroom  door  was  ajar,  and  David  was 
emboldened  to  stride  forward  and  beat  smartly 
on  it  with  his  fist.  Again  he  did  this,  and 


March  Hares.  135 

then,  while  a  strange  excitement  welled  up 
ward  within  him — or  was  it  a  sinking  move 
ment  instead? — flung  the  door  open  and 
looked  in. 

There  was  no  Vestalia  here  at  all ! 

The  details  that  the  bed  was  neatly  made 
up,  that  the  room  showed  no  trace  of  recent 
occupancy,  and  that  the  dressing-bag  was  gone, 
soaked  themselves  vaguely  through  his  mind. 
He  looked  about,  both  in  this  and  the  outer 
apartment,  for  a  message  of  some  kind,  quite 
in  vain. 

His  pained  attention  wandered  again  in 
haphazard  fashion  to  the  head  of  the  moose, 
fastened  between  two  windows.  The  fatuous 
emptiness  of  its  point-blank  gaze  suddenly  in 
furiated  him,  and  he  dealt  its  foolishly  elon 
gated  snout  a  resounding  whack  with  his  open 
hand.  The  huge  trophy  toppled  under  the 
blow,  swung  half-loose  on  its  fastening,  then 
pitched  with  a  crash  to  the  floor. 

Mosscrop  kicked  it  violently  again  and 
again  where  it  lay. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

MOSSCEOP  had  not  the  heart  to  breakfast 
alone  in  his  deserted  lodgings. 

The  impulse  to  get  away  mastered  him  on 
the  instant  of  its  appearance.  He  strode  forth 
as  if  delay  were  fraught  with  sore  perils.  At  a 
shabby  luncheon-bar  in  the  Strand  below  he 
consumed  a  cup  of  abominable  coffee  and  a  dry 
sausage-roll  in  the  same  nervous  haste.  The 
barmaid  in  attendance  was  known  to  him.  She 
annoyed  him  now  by  displaying  in  her  manner 
the  assumption  that  he  wished  to  laugh  and 
joke  with  her  as  usual.  He  glowered  at  her 
instead,  and  met  her  advances  to  conversation 
with  a  curt  nod. 

"  You  must  have  got  out  of  the  wrong  side 
of  the  bed  this  morning,"  she  commented 
loftily. 

136 


March  Hares.  137 

"Very  likely,"  he  answered  with  cold  brev 
ity,  counting  out  the  necessary  coppers  and 
turning  on  his  heel. 

Outside  he  seemed  to  himself  to  choose  the 
direction  of  his  steps  quite  at  random.  He 
walked  slowly,  trying  to  fasten  his  brain  down 
to  the  task  of  conjecturing  what  on  earth  it  all 
meant.  Alas,  his  mind  was  as  empty  as  those 
desolate  rooms  up  at  the  top  of  Dunstan's  Inn. 
The  power  of  coherent  speculation  had  left 
him.  It  was  hardly  possible  even  to  arrange 
in  decent  sequence  the  details  of  what  had 
happened.  An  indefinitely  sweeping  rage  at 
destiny  in  general  oppressed  all  his  faculties. 
He  muttered  meaningless  oaths  under  his 
breath  as  he  went  along,  directed  at  an  intan 
gible  "  it "  which  was  equally  without  form  and 
personality,  a  mere  abstract  symbol  of  the  uni 
versal  beastliness  of  things. 

The  notion  of  cursing  Vestalia  did  not  sug- ' 
gest  itself.  So  far  as  he  had  any  intelligible 
thoughts  about  her,  they  were  instinctively  ex 
culpatory.  She  seemed  indeed  to  have  behaved 
stupidly,  but  it  must  have  been  under  a  mis- 


138  MwrcJi  Hares. 

apprehension  of  some  sort.  Something  per 
verse  had  happened  to  lead  her  off  into  a  fool 
ish  course  of  action.  He  resolutely  declined 
to  open  his  mind  to  any  other  view  of  her. 
She  must  have  quitted  the  Inn  for  some  reason 
which  wholly  satisfied  her  sense  of  honourable 
conduct.  What  was  this  reason?  Had  she 
conjured  it  up  out  of  her  own  meditations,  or 
had  it  been  furnished  to  her  from  an  external 
source  ? 

All  at  once  he  stopped  short,  mental  and 
bodily  progress  alike  arrested  by  a  striking 
thought.  "Damn  him!''''  he  murmured  to 
himself,  as  he  turned  this  new  idea  over.  Now 
that  it  had  come  to  him,  he  fairly  marvelled  at 
the  dulness  which  had  failed  to  discover  it  at 
the  beginning.  It  was  as  plain  as  the  nose  on 
one's  face — the  Earl  had  bidden  Vestalia  to  be 
gone.  "  Ah,  that  miserly,  meddling  fool  of  a 
Drumpipes ! "  he  groaned,  between  clenched 
teeth. 

This  laying  bare  of  the  mystery  brought  no 
consolation.  The  day  was  as  irretrievably 
ruined,  the  tender  little  romance  as  ruthlessly 


Ma/rcfi  Hcvres.  139 

crushed,  as  ever.  A  certain  doubtful  solace 
seemed  to  offer  itself  in  the  shape  of  a  quarrel 
with  Drumpipes,  but  Mosscrop  shook  his  head 
despondently  at  it.  What  good  would  that 
do  ?  And  for  that  matter,  how  should  one  go 
to  work  to  quarrel  with  that  tough-hided,  fatu 
ous,  conceited,  dense-witted,  imperturbable, 
and  impenetrable  idiot  ?  He  would  never  even 
perceive  that  the  attempt  was  being  made. 
David  piled  up  in  reverie  the  loathly  epithets 
upon  the  over-large  bald  head  of  his  friend 
with  a  savage  satisfaction.  "  You  preposter 
ous  clown!"  he  snarled  at  the  burly  blond 
image  of  the  absent  nobleman  in  his  mind's 
eye.  "  You  gratuitous  and  wanton  ass  !  Oh, 
you  unthinkable  duffer ! " 

And  somehow  there  was  after  all  a  kind  of 
relief  in  these  comminatory  exercises.  The 
dim  light  of  a  possible  diversion  began  to  filter 
through  the  storm-cloud  of  Mosscrop's  wrath. 
He  was  still  bitterly  depressed,  and  furious  as 
well,  of  course,  but  self-possession  was  returning 
to  him,  and  with  it  the  capacity  for  planning  and 

ordering  his  movements.     It  occurred  to  him 
10 


140  March  Hares. 

that  he  ought  to  do  something  to  turn  his 
thoughts  temporarily  at  least  from  this  world- 
weary  sadness. 

Up  on  the  opposite  corner  his  eye  caught 
the  legend  "  Savoy  Street."  He  stared  at  the 
small  sign,  perched  above  the  dingy  brick  cor 
nice  of  the  first-floor,  for  a  moment  with  an 
unreflecting  gaze.  Then  he  turned  and  walked 
briskly  down  the  steep  hillside  thoroughfare, 
and  into  the  courtyard  of  the  great  hotel 
which,  like  the  street  and  the  quarter,  com 
memorates  in  its  name  the  first  of  a  long  and 
steadfast  line  of  needy  Continental  princes 
whose  maintenance  the  British  tax-payer  has 
found  himself  fated  to  provide. 

At  the  desk,  he  wrote  out  a  card  and 
sent  it  up  as  an  accompaniment  to  the  in 
quiry  whether  Mr.  Laban  Skinner  was  in  or 
not. 

No,  it  was  reported  presently ;  Mr.  Skinner 
had  gone  out — but  the  young  lady  was  in. 

David  pondered  this  unexpected  intelli 
gence.  "  Did  she  tell  you  that  she  was  in  ?  " 
he  asked  the  boy,  suspiciously. 


March  Ha/res.  141 

Yes  ;  she  had  done  so. 

Mosscrop  discovered  that  he  had  been  quite 
unprepared  for  this.  He  knit  his  brows  and 
ruminated  upon  it.  His  impression  had  been 
at  the  time  that  the  girl  disliked  him,  or  at 
least  disliked  the  proposition  which  her  absurd 
father  had  made.  It  seemed  to  him,  more 
over,  that  he  disliked  her  in  turn.  She  had 
stared  rudely  at  poor  Vestalia — but  then  it 
should  be  remembered  in  fairness  that  all 
women  did  that  to  one  another.  Her  attitude 
towards  him  had  been  ostentatiously  apathetic, 
almost  to  the  point  of  insolence ;  and  yet  he 
recalled  that  in  that  moment  when  he  had 
caught  her  unawares,  she  had  been  displaying 
a  notable  interest  in  what  was  going  on.  The 
notion  that  there  had  been  a  sort  of  challenge 
underlying  the  mask  of  studied  indifference 
she  had  presented  to  him  returned  to  his  mind. 
And  he  still  needed  diversion,  too,  as  much  as 
ever. 

"  If  you  will  show  the  way,"  he  said  to  the 
boy  at  this  juncture. 

The  lift  bore  them  a  long  distance  upward, 


142  March  Ha/res. 

quite  to  the  roof  it  seemed.  David  formed 
the  impression  that  rents  must  be  cheap  at 
that  altitude;  but  when  he  took  the  first 
glance  round  the  sitting-room  into  which  he 
found  himself  presently  ushered,  the  idea  van 
ished. 

It  was  a  large  and  imposingly-appointed 
room,  exhaling,  as  it  were,  an  effect  of  high- 
priced  luxury.  The  broad  windows  at  the 
front  came  down  to  the  floor,  and  opened  upon 
a  balcony.  There  were  awnings  hung  outside 
to  ward  off  the  sunshine,  and  this  threw  the 
whole  apartment  into  a  mellow  twilight,  con 
trasting  sharply  with  the  brightness  of  the 
corridor  Mosscrop  had  just  quitted. 

He  looked  about  him,  hesitatingly,  to  make 
sure  that  there  really  was  no  one  in  the  room. 
The  glimpse  of  some  white  drapery  fluttering 
against  the  edge  of  a  chair  out  on  the  balcony 
caught  his  eye,  and  he  moved  across  to  the 
nearest  open  window.  The  noble  prospect  of 
the  Thames  viewed  from  this  height  impressed 
itself  with  great  vividness  upon  his  mind,  even 
in  advance  of  his  perception  that  he  had  in- 


Ma/rch  Hares.  143 

deed  found  Miss  Skinner.  He  looked  down 
ward  with  a  gaze  which  embraced  both  the 
girl  and  the  river,  and  for  a  moment  they  pre 
served  an  equally  unconscious  aspect. 

The  young  lady  then  lifted  her  head,  side- 
wise,  and  acknowledged  Mosscrop's  presence 
by  a  slow  drooping  movement  of  her  black 
lashes.  "How  do  you  do?"  she  remarked, 
placidly.  "Bring  out  a  chair  for  your 
self." 

He  did  as  he  was  told,  and  seated  himself 
near  the  balustrade,  so  that  he  partially  faced 
her ;  but  he  looked  again  at  the  wonderful  pic 
ture  below,  to  collect  his  thoughts. 

"  I  had  no  idea  it  was  so  magnificent  up 
here,"  he  said  at  last. 

"  Indeed,"  commented  his  companion.  It 
was  impossible  to  say  whether  the  remark  was 
in  the  nature  of  an  exclamation  or  an  inquiry. 
Mosscrop  found  himself  compelled  to  glance 
up,  if  only  to  determine  this  open  ques 
tion. 

The  realisation  that  she  was  extremely  well 
worth  looking  at  swept  over  him  like  a  flood, 


144  March  Hares. 

at  the  instant  of  his  lifting  his  eyes.  It  suited 
her  to  be  bare-headed,  and  to  wear  just  the 
creamy  white  cashmere  house-gown  that  he 
beheld  her  in.  The  glossy  plaits  and  masses 
of  her  hair  were  wonderful.  In  the  softened, 
tinted  half-shadow  of  the  awning  her  dark 
skin  glowed  with  a  dusky  radiance  which  fas 
cinated  him.  Her  mien  was  as  imperious  as 
ever,  but  it  suggested  now  an  empress  disposed 
to  play,  a  sultana  whose  inclination  was  for 
amusement. 

"  Did  you  come  up  to  see  the  view  ?  I  dare 
say  it  is  even  better  from  the  leads.  You  call 
them  leads  here,  don't  you?  Your  novels 
always  do,  I  know." 

This  speech  of  hers,  languidly  delivered, 
had  its  impertinent  side,  without  doubt,  but 
Mosscrop  caught  in  its  tone  a  not  unamiable 
intention.  She  did  not  smile  in  response  to 
the  puzzled  questioning  of  his  swift  glance, 
but  he  convinced  himself  none  the  less  that  it 
was  a  pleasantry.  He  noted  in  this  instant  of 
confused  speculation  that  she  had  a  book  in 
her  lap — a  large,  red-covered  volume  with 


March  Hares.  145 

much  gilt  on  the  binding — and  that  she 
kept  a  finger  in  it  to  mark  some  particular 
place. 

"  Your  father  was  good  enough  to  ask  me 
to  call,"  he  reminded  her,  with  gentleness. 
"  I  asked  for  him,  and  I " 

"  You  are  disappointed  to  find  him  out  ?  " 

Yes;  there  could  be  no  doubt  she  was 
amusing  herself.  "  Oh,  that  depends,"  ven 
tured  David,  with  temerity. 

The  girl  surveyed  him  at  her  leisure.  "  If 
I  remember  aright,"  she  said,  "  you  were  in 
vited  conditionally.  You  were  to  come,  or 
rather  to  communicate  with  us,  if  you  decided 
to  close  with  my  father's  offer.  So  I  suppose 
you've  made  up  your  mind  to  accept." 

"  Well,  I  should  like  to  talk  more  about  it ; 
get  a  clearer  idea  of  what  was  proposed." 

"  My  father  takes  great  pains  in  expressing 
himself.  I  should  have  said  his  explanation 
was  as  full  as  anything  could  well  be  on  this 
earth." 

"  To  speak  frankly,"  replied  David,  "  I  got 
the  idea  that  you  didn't  care  much  about  your 


146  March  Hares. 

father's  scheme — in  fact,  that  you  disliked  it. 
That's  what  I  wanted  to  be  clear  about.  It 
would  be  ridiculous  for  me  to  be  going  round, 
delivering  instructive  lectures  to  you  on  an 
tiquities  and  ruins  and  so  forth,  and  you  hat 
ing  me  all  the  while  for  a  bore  and  a  nui 
sance.  It  would  place  us  both  in  a  false 
position." 

"And  you  can't  stand  false  positions, 
eh?" 

Mosscrop  rose.  "  I'm  afraid  I  can't  stand 
this  one,  at  all  events,"  he  answered,  with  dig 
nified  brevity. 

"Oh,  you  mustn't  think  of  going!"  his 
hostess  protested,  with  a  momentary  ring  of 
animation  in  her  voice.  "  My  father's  liable 
to  return  any  minute,  and  he'd  be  greatly  put 
out  to  find  he'd  missed  you." 

"  I  could  wait  for  him  in  the  reception 
room  downstairs,"  he  suggested,  moodily — 
"  or,  for  that  matter,  I  don't  know  that  it's 
very  important  that  we  should  meet  at  all." 

"  I  don't  call  that  a  bit  polite,"  she  com 
mented. 


March  Hares.  147 

"I'm  afraid  your  standards  of  politeness 
are  beyond  me,"  he  began,  formally.  Then 
the  absurdity  of  the  thing  struck  him,  and  he 
grinned  in  a  reluctant  fashion.  "Do  you 
really  want  me  to  stay  ? "  he  asked,  with  the 
spirit  of  banter  in  his  tone. 

"  Oh  that  depends,"  she  mocked  back  at 
him.  "  If  you  can  be  amusing,  yes." 

"  Just  how  amusing  must  I  be  ? "  He 
dropped  into  his  chair  again,  and  this  time 
laid  his  hat  aside. 

"  Oh,  say  as  much  so  as  you  were  yesterday 
with  the  young  lady  of  the  butter-coloured 
hair.  I  think  that  would  about  fill  the 
bill." 

Mosscrop  ground  his  teeth  with  swift  an 
noyance.  Then  he  chuckled  in  a  mood  of 
saturnine  mirth.  Finally  he  sighed,  and  dole 
fully  shook  his  head. 

"  Ah,  yesterday ! "  he  mourned,  drawing  a 
still  deeper  breath. 

"  You  were  extremely  entertaining,  then," 
pursued  the  other,  ignoring  his  emotions. 
"Do  you  find  yourself — as  a  usual  thing,  I 


148  March  Hares. 

mean — varying  a  good  deal  from  day  to  day  ? 
I  ask  entirely  from  curiosity.  I've  never  met 
anyone  before  in  precisely  your  position." 

"  No,  I  should  think  not ! "  he  assented, 
with  gloomy  emphasis.  I"  I  can  well  believe 
that  my  position  is  unique  in  the  history  of 
mankind.  Such  grotesque  luck  could  scarcely 
repeat  itself.  But  I  beg  your  pardon — it  isn't 
a  thing  that  would  interest  you ;  I  had  no 
business  to  mention  it  at  all»5 

"It  was  I  who  mentioned  it,  I  believe," 
she  corrected  him  calmly. 

There  was  obvious  meaning  in  her  insist 
ence.  He  looked  up  at  her  in  vague  surprise, 
the  while  he  mentally  retraced  the  steps  by 
which  the  conversation  had  reached  this 
point.  There  was  undoubtedly  a  very  know 
ing  expression  in  her  eyes.  Clearly  she  had 
meant  to  associate  Vestalia  with  what  she  de 
scribed  as  his  position — the  position  which  she 
deemed  so  unusual ;  it  was  equally  plain  that 
she  desired  him  to  understand  that  she  did  so. 
It  was  impossible  that  she  should  know  any 
thing  of  what  had  happened.  He  searched 


March  Hares.  149 

his  memory,  and  made  sure  that  no  personal 
hint  of  any  sort  had  drifted  into  that  ram 
bling  discourse  of  his  in  the  Assyrian  corri 
dors,  which  the  Americans  had  more  or  less 
overheard.  What  then  was  she  talking  about  ? 

Ah,  what  indeed?  She  lay  back  in  her 
chair,  and  met  his  gaze  of  bewildered  interro 
gation  with  a  fine  show  of  composure.  She 
looked  at  him  tranquilly  through  lazy,  half- 
closed  eyelids.  'His  suspicions  discerned  be 
neath  the  passive  surface  of  this  regard  ani 
mated  under-currents  of  ironical  amusement 
and  triumph.  There  was  nothing  overt  upon 
which  he  could  found  the  challenge  to  an  ex 
planation,  but  as  he  continued  to  scrutinise 
her,  he  could  fancy  that  her  whole  presence 
radiated  the  suggestion  of  repressed  glee. 
Whatever  the  mystery  might  be,  she  was  ex 
tracting  great  delight  from  her  possession  of  a 
clue  to  it. 

"  Yes,  it  was  you  who  mentioned  my  posi 
tion,"  he  remarked,  groping  lamely  for  some 
sure  footing  on  which  to  redress  his  disadvan 
tage.  "  I  don't  know  that  I  quite  follow  you  ; 


150  March  Hares. 

wherein  do  you  find  my  position,  as  you  term 
it,  so  exceptional  ?  " 

"  You  yourself  have  boasted  that  it  couldn't 
be  matched  in  all  history,"  she  reminded  him. 
Her  tone  was  casual  enough,  but  the  sense 
of  sport  began  to  gleam  unmistakably  in  her 
eyes. 

"Now  you  argue  in  a  circle,"  he  remon 
strated,  with  a  shade  of  professional  acerbity 
in  his  voice.  "  Your  remark  came  before 
mine,  and  hence  cannot  possibly  have  been 
based  upon  my  subsequent  comment.  If  I 
may  be  permitted  the  observation,  they  seem 
to  teach  logic  but  indifferently  in  the  United 
States." 

"  Oh,  that  is  why  we  came  here,"  retorted 
the  girl,  with  ostentatious  naivete.  The  con 
ceit  pleased  her  so  much  that  she  bent  for 
ward,  and  assumed  the  manner  of  one  com- 
^municating  an  important  fact.  "  That  is  why 
I  had  my  father  make  you  an  offer  at  once. 
You  know,  most  professors,  and  teachers,  and 
so  on,  are  so  hard  to  understand.  But  the 
moment  I  laid  eyes  on  you  I  said,  '  There's  a 


March  Hares.  151 

man  that  I  can  see  through,  as  if  he  were 
plate-glass  ;  I  can  read  him  like  a  book.'  And, 
of  course,  that  must  he  the  most  valuable  of 
all  qualities  in  an  instructor." 

"  So  I  am  entirely  transparent,  am  I  ?  I 
present  no  secrets  to  your  gaze  ?  "  Mosscrop 
spoke  like  one  in  whom  pique  and  a  sense  of 
the  comical  struggled  for  mastery.  "  Then  I 
cannot  do  better  than  beg  you  to  tell  me  some 
things  about  myself.  Why,  for  example,  do  I 
sit  here  patiently  and  submit  to  be  laughed  at, 
heckled,  satirised,  and  generally  bully-ragged 
by  a  young  lady,  whose  title  to  do  these  things 
is  not  in  the  least  apparent  to  me  ?  " 

"Why,  don't  you  remember?  You're 
waiting  for  papa." 

"  And  incidentally  providing  his  offspring, 
in  the  interim,  with  much  harmless  and  chaste 
entertainment,"  put  in  Mosscrop,  drily.  "  I 
am  charmed  to  have  diverted  you  so  success 
fully.  It  occurs  to  me,  since  you  are  so  readi 
ly  amused,  that  you  must  have  been  wofully 
bored  before  I  made  my  happy  appearance." 

"Oh,  quite 'the  contrary,"   exclaimed  the 


152  March  Hares. 

girl,  with  a  sudden  stress  in  her  tone,  which 
hinted  that  this  was  what  she  had  been  wait 
ing  for.  She  opened  the  volume,  as  she  spoke, 
at  the  place  marked  by  her  finger.  "  I  was 
f'  reading  in  the  Peerage,  you  know.  It  is  a 
most  entrancing  book.  I  am  never  dull  when 
I  am  reading  about  earls  and  things." 

"  I  have  heard  that  the  work  enjoys  a  re 
markable  popularity  in  your  country,"  David 
remarked,  sourly. 

"  There  is  such  romance  in  it !  "  she  went 
on,  in  mock  rhapsody ;  "  it  makes  such  ap 
peals  to  the  imagination  !  It  puts  you  at  once 
in  an  atmosphere  of  chivalry,  of  knightly  ad 
ventures  and  exploits,  of  tournaments  and 
chain-armour,  and  courts  of  love " 

"  And  of  divorce,  and  bankruptcy,  too,"  he 
interposed.  "  Don't  forget  those." 

The  girl  looked  grave  for  a  moment,  and 
nodded  her  head  as  if  in  relenting  apology. 
Then  she  recovered  her  high  spirits  by  as 
swift  a  transition. 

"  And  such  splendid  old  names  as  you  get, 
too ! "  she  continued,  with  her  eyes  on  the 


March  Hares.  153 

open  page.     "Listen  to   this,  for    example. 
Could  anything  be  finer  ?  " 

DRUMPIPES,  Earl  of.  (Sir  Archibald-Coro- 
nach-Dugal-Strathspey-Malcolm-Linkhaw)  Vis 
count  Dunfugle  of  Inverdummie,  and  Baron 
Pilliewillie  of  Slug- Angus,  Morayshire,  all  in  the 
peerage  of  Scotland,  and  a  Baronet  of  Nova 
Scotia.  Born  August  24th,  1866.  Succeeded 
his  grandfather  as  19th  Earl  January  10th, 
1888.  Married  May  2nd,  1890,  Janet-Eustasia- 
Marjory,  3rd  daughter  of  the  Master  of  Craigie- 
whaup  by  his  wife,  the  Hon.  Tryphena  Pincock 
(who  deceased  March  6th,  1879),  elder  daughter 
of  the  4th  Baron  Dubb  of  Kilwhissel.  Seat, 
Skirl  Castle,  near  Lossiewink,  Elgin.  Club, 
Wanderers. 

She  read  it  all  with  marked  deliberation 
and  distinctness  of  utterance.  When  she  fin 
ished,  silence  reigned  for  some  time  on  the 
balcony. 

"  Well,  am  I  not  right?  "  she  asked  at  last, 
lifting  her  head,  and  flashing  the  full  richness 
of  her  black  eyes  into  Mosscrop's  face.  "  Don't 
you  admit  the  inspiration  of  such  names  ?  " 

David  answered  in  a  hesitating,  dubious 
manner.  "  I  am  more  curious  about  the  source 
— and  scope — of  your  inspiration,"  he  said. 


154  March  Ha/res. 

"  Unhappily,  it  cannot  be  pretended  that  you 
are  transparent.  You  confront  me  with  an 
opacity  against  which  my  feeble  wits  beat  in 
vain.  I  can  see  that  it  is  known  to  you  that 
I  know  Drumpipes.  But  why  this  fact  should 
assume  in  your  mind  such  portentous  and 
mysterious  dimensions,  and  why  you  should 
treat  it  with  the  air  of  one  who  has  unearthed 
a  great  conspiracy,  a  terrible  secret,  I  can't  for 
the  life  of  me  comprehend." 

"  Ah,  you  are  more  complicated  than  I  had 
thought,"  she  replied.  "I  did  not  imagine 
you  would  keep  up  the  defence  so  long." 

"Me? — a  defence?  never,"  cried  David, 
incited  in  some  vague  way  by  this  remark  to 
an  accession  of  assurance.  "  I  defend  nothing. 
I  surrender  with  eagerness.  I  roll  myself  at 
your  feet,  Miss  Skinner.  All  I  crave  in  return 
is  that  you  will  put  a  label  on  my  submission. 
It  may  be  weak,  but  I  should  dearly  like  to 
know  what  it  is  that  I  am  abandoning." 

"  What  I  should  suggest  that  you  give  up 
is  your  attempt  to  deceive  me — us — as  to  your 
identity." 


March  Hares.  155 

"Ah!  am  I  indeed  someone  else,  then? 
Upon  my  word,  I  can't  congratulate  the  other 
fellow." 

"  You  wrote  your  name  down  for  my  father 
yesterday,  and  again  on  this  card  here  this 
morning,  as  Mosscrop — David  Mosscrop." 

He  assented  by  a  nod,  and  allowed  the  be 
ginnings  of  an  abashed  and  contrite  look  to 
gather  upon  his  face. 

"  Well,  it  just  happened  that,  the  moment 
I  first  laid  eyes  on  you,  I  knew  who  you  really 
were.  By  the  merest  accident,  your  picture 
had  been  shown  to  me — by  a  gentleman  who 
knows  you  intimately,  and  is  indeed  distantly 
related  to  you — on  shipboard  coming  over.  I 
recognised  you  instantly,  there  in  the  Museum, 
and  I  made  papa  speak  to  you.  I  was  curious 
to  see  what  you  would  say  and  do." 

"I'm  afraid  you  were  disappointed.  Did 
you  think  I  would  shout  and  dance,  or  what  ?  " 
He  struggled  with  some  degree  of  success  to 
speak  impassively. 

"  I  had  never  met  any  one  before  in  your 

position  in  life,  and  I  had  the  whim  to  experi- 
11 


156  March  Hares. 

merit  on  my  own  account."  She  said  this  as 
if  defending  her  action  to  herself  more  than  to 
her  auditor. 

"  And  may  I  have  my  little  whim  gratified 
too  ?  "  he  asked.  "  I  am  extremely  curious  to 
know  how  you  like  your  experiment  as  far  as 
you  have  got  with  it." 

She  did  not  answer  immediately,  and  he 
occupied  the  interval  by  an  earnest  mental 
scuffle  after  some  clue  to  what  she  was  driving 
at.  He  knew  of  no  man  who  possessed  his 
portrait — at  least  among  those  who  went  down 
to  the  sea  in  ships.  He  had  had  no  photo 
graph  taken  for  years,  to  begin  with.  A  dis 
tant  relation  of  his,  she  had  said,  and  on  a  very 
recent  voyage  from  America.  Who  the  deuce 
could  it  be  ?  "What  acquaintance  of  his  had 
been  of  late  in  America  ?  All  at  once  the  an 
swer  leaped  upward  in  his  mind.  He  laughed 
aloud,  with  an  abruptness  which  took  him  not 
less  than  his  companion  by  surprise.  But  then 
a  puzzled  scowl  overshadowed  the  grin  on  his 
countenance.  He  saw  a  little  way  farther  into 
the  millstone,  but  that  was  all. 


Ma/rch  Hares.  157 

"  I  hope  you  don't  regret  your  experiment," 
he  repeated.  "It  would  have  been  simpler, 
perhaps,  if  your  father  had  mentioned  that 
you  were  friends  of  Mr.  Linkhaw's.  That  in 
itself  would  have  been  an  ample  introduc 
tion." 

"  Perhaps  we  should  have  done  so,  had  you 
been  alone."  Her  tone  was  cool  to  the  verge 
of  haughtiness. 

He  rapidly  considered  what  this  might 
mean.  Her  remark  clearly  indicated  that  Ves- 
talia's  presence  had  seemed  to  her  reprehen 
sible.  Why  ?  There  was  some  intricacy  here 
which  he  could  not  fathom.  That  confounded 
Drumpipes  had  told  her — what  ?  Eureka !  He 
had  it !  The  picture  that  she  had  seen  was  a 
little  cheap  ambrotype  of  Drumpipes  and  him 
self,  standing  together,  which  had  been  made 
by  a  poor  devil  of  a  wayside  photographer,  two 
Derby  days  before.  Undoubtedly  that  was 
what  the  Earl  had  shown  her — the  only  one 
he  could  have  shown  her.  And — why  of 
course— Drumpipes  had  pointed  him,  David, 
out  as  the  Earl.  What  his  motive  could  have 


158  March  Hares. 

been,  heaven  only  knew,  but  this  was  palpably 
the  key  to  the  riddle. 

He  grasped  this  key  with  decision,  on  the 
instant.  He  straightened  himself,  frowned  a 
little,  and  laboriously  stiffened  the  tell-tale 
muscles  about  his  mouth. 

"  I  don't  think  I  quite  like  this  notion  of 
Linkhaw's  babbling  about  me  and  my  affairs," 
he  said,  with  austerity. 

"  Oh,  I  assure  you,"  she  protested,  anxious 
ly,  "  he  was  very  cautious.  He  only  gave  the 
most  sparing  answers  to  my  questions.  I  had 
to  literally  drag  things  from  him." 

"  But  what  business  had  he  showing  my 
picture  about  to  begin  with?  He  shall  hear 
what  I  think  of  it!  Men's  allowances  have 
been  stopped  for  less  than  that." 

"  It  will  be  very  unjust  indeed  if  you  visit 
it  upon  him,"  the  girl  urged,  almost  tremu 
lously  ;  "  it  was  all  my  fault.  I  asked  him 
one  day  if  he  had  ever  met  a  nobleman,  and 
he,  quite  as  a  matter  of  course,  mentioned  that 
one  of  his  own  relatives  was  an  Earl.  One 
day,  later,  he  was  showing  me  a  little  tin-type 


Ma/rch  Hares.  159 

of  himself,  and  he  merely  said  that  you  were 
the  other  person  in  the  picture,  that  was  all." 

"  And  then  you  proceeded  to  drag  things 
from  him.  I  believe  that  was  your  phrase," 
remarked  David,  in  a  severe  tone.  The  sensa 
tion  of  having  this  proud  and  insolent  beauty 
in  a  tremor  of  entreaty  before  him  was  very 
delightful. 

"  Naturally,  I  asked  him  questions,"  she 
replied,  with  a  little  more  spirit.  "  Earls  don't 
grow  on  every  bush  with  us.  And  for  that 
matter,  why,  goodness  me!  he  did  nothing 
but  praise  you  from  morning  till  night.  By 
his  account,  one  would  think  butter  wouldn't 
melt  in  your  mouth.  He  made  you  out  a 
regular  saint.  I  was  quite  prepared  to  see  you 
with  a  halo  round  your  head — and  instead, 
I " 

She  stopped  short,  with  a  confused  and 
deprecatory  smile.  David,  noting  it,  rejoiced 
that  he  had  taken  a  peremptory  tone  about  the 
garrulous  Linkhaw. 

"  Instead,  you  discovered  that  I  was  a  mere 
flesh  and  blood  mortal  like  the  rest."  He  per- 


160  March  Hares. 

mitted  himself  to  unbend,  and  even  to  smile 
a  little,  as  he  furnished  this  conclusion  to  her 
sentence.  "  Was  it  a  very  painful  disillusion 
ment  ?  " 

"  Oh,  I've  read  and  heard  enough  about 
the  lives  that  your  class  lead  here  in  Europe," 
she  replied,  with  a  marked  reversion  toward 
her  former  manner.  "  I  don't  pretend  that  I 
was  really  surprised." 

David  assumed  a  judicial  expression. 
"  Considering  the  way  we  are  brought  up,  and 
the  temptations  that  are  thrust  upon  us,"  he 
said,  impartially,  "  I  would  not  say  that  we 
are  so  much  worse  than  other  men." 

"  But  you  are  pretty  bad — that  you  must 
admit." 

Before  David  had  satisfactorily  framed  the 
admission  expected  of  him,  the  sound  of  an 
opening  door  and  of  footsteps  came  from  within. 

"  It  is  papa,"  whispered  the  girl,  leaning 
forward  in  a  confidential  manner.  "  I'm  going 
to  tell  him," 

"  I  see  no  valid  objection,"  answered  David, 
with  dignity. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

As  the  balcony  was  too  small  for  another 
chair,  and  Mr.  Skinner  did  not  come  to  the 
window,  his  daughter  led  her  guest  into  the 
sitting-room. 

"  Papa,"  she  said,  "  you  will  recall  the  gen 
tleman  whom  we  met  yesterday  at  the  British 
Museum." 

Mr.  Skinner  lifted  to  its  place  the  pince- 
nez  which  depended  on  a  gold  thread  from  the 
lapel  of  his  carefully-buttoned  frock-coat,  and 
scrutinised  the  person  indicated  in  a  painstak 
ing  manner. 

"  Ah,  yes,  indeed,"  he  said,  continuing  his 
gaze,  but  with  no  salutation,  and  no  offer  of 
the  hand. 

"  It's  so  dark  in  here,  I  don't  believe  you 
do,"  she  remarked,  to  cover  the  awkwardness 

161 


162  March  Hares. 

of  the  moment.  "  The  sun  has  gone  now,  any 
way,"  and  she  moved  back  and  put  a  hand 
upon  the  awning-cord. 

"  Permit  me,"  said  David,  hurrying  to  her 
side,  and  pulling  at  the  shade. 

"  He's  out  of  sorts  about  something,"  the 
girl  murmured  furtively.  "  Don't  mind  it ; 
just  leave  him  to  me." 

In  the  brightened  light,  Mr.  Skinner's  de 
meanour  seemed  no  more  cordial.  He  re 
garded  his  visitor  with  a  doubtful  glance,  and 
gave  indications  of  a  sense  of  embarrassment 
in  his  presence.  The  daughter,  however,  was 
in  no  respect  dismayed  by  her  responsibility. 

"  Papa,"  she  said  with  brisk  decision,  "  it 
was  all  a  joke  yesterday.  Our  friend  was  so 
amused  by  your  offer  yesterday " 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  Adele,"  the  father 
interposed  ceremoniously,  "  but  it  becomes 
immediately  incumbent  upon  me  to  express 
my  dissent.  To  obviate  any  possible  miscon 
ception,  it  should  be  explicitly  stated  that,  al 
though  it  is  true  that  the  task  of  formulating 
the  proposal  to  which  you  allude  did  un- 


Ma/rch  Hwres.  163 

doubtedly  devolve  upon  me,  the  proposition 
itself,  both  in  spirit  and  suggestion,  originated 
in  your  own  consciousness." 

"  All  right,"  she  hurriedly  went  on,  "  have 
it  anyway  you  like.  The  point  is  that  this 
gentleman  thought  it  was  funny,  and  so  he 
capped  it  with  his  own  little  joke  by  pretend 
ing  to  be  some  one  else.  He  made  up  that 
name  he  gave  you  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
just  for  sport.  He  came  here  this  morning, 
just  to  explain.  He  was  nervous  about  the 
deception,  innocent  though  it  was.  Papa,  let 
me  introduce  to  you  Mr.  Linkhaw's  relation, 
of  whom  he  spoke  so  often,  you  know — the 
Earl  of  Drumpipes." 

Mr.  Skinner  took  in  this  intelligence  with 
respectful  deliberation.  He  bowed  mean 
while,  and,  after  a  moment's  deferential  hesi 
tation,  shook  hands  in  a  formal  way  with  Da 
vid,  and  motioned  him  to  a  seat. 

"  Sir,"  he  began,  picking  his  phrases  with 
even  greater  care,  "  you  will  excuse  me  if  I  do 
not  address  you  as  c  My  Lord,'  since  it  is  a 
form  of  words  which  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 


164  March  Hares. 

regard  as  seemly  when  employed  by  one  hu 
man  being  toward  another ;  but  I  gather  from 
my  daughter's  explanation  that  your  state 
ments  yesterday  concerning  your  identity  were 
conceived  in  a  spirit  of  pleasantry.  Under 
ordinary  circumstances,  sir,  the  revelation  that 
an  entirely  serious  and  decorous  suggestion  of 
mine  had  been  received  with  hilarity  might 
not  convey  to  my  mind  an  exclusively  natter 
ing  impression.  But  I  do  not,  sir,  close  my 
eyes  to  the  fact  that  a  wide  gulf  of  usage  and 
custom,  and,  I  might  say,  of  principles,  sepa 
rates  a  simple  Jeffersonian  Democrat  like  my 
self  from  the  professor  of  an  hereditary  Euro 
pean  dignity.  I  am  therefore  able,  sir,  to  ac 
cept,  with  comparatively  few  reservations,  the 
explanation  which  you  have  tendered  to  my 
daughter,  and  vicariously,  as  I  understand  it, 
to  me." 

David  repressed  a  groan,  and  hastily  cast 
about  in  his  mind  for  a  decent  pretext  for 
flight.  "  I  assure  you  that  it  greatly  relieves 
me  to  find  you  so  courteously  magnanimous," 
he  said.  "  I  merely  yielded  to  the  playful  im- 


Maxell  Ha/res.  165 

pulse  of  the  moment ;  and  as  your  daughter 
has  so  kindly  told  you,  I  made  haste  thereafter 
to  repair  my  error,  when  its  possible  misinter 
pretation  occurred  to  me."  He  bowed  again, 
in  response  to  the  other's  solemn  genuflection, 
and  looked  toward  the  door. 

"I  should  be  pleased,  sir,"  Mr.  Skinner 
said,  "  if  you  would  honour  us  by  remaining 
to  luncheon." 

"  Ah,  I  should  have  liked  that  so  much," 
answered  David,  with  fervour,  "  but  unhappily 
I  have  an  engagement  at  Marlborough  House. 
It  will  be  no  end  of  a  bore,  but  it  can't  be 
helped.  An  invitation  there,  you  know,  is 
equivalent  to  a  command.  That  is  one  of  the 
drawbacks  of  a  monarchy — but  of  course  every 
system  has  its  weak  points." 

"That  is  a  generalisation,"  returned  Mr. 
Skinner,  "  to  which  I  am  not  prepared  to  give 
unmeasured  adhesion.  I  will  explain  to  you, 
sir,  briefly,  the  reasons  which  dictate  my  hesi 
tation  to  entirely " 

"  I'm  afraid,  Mr.  Skinner,  that  I  must  tear 
myself  away,"  put  in  David,  anxiously  con- 


166  March  Ha/res. 

suiting  his  watch.  "The  Prince  never  for 
gives  a  fellow  being  late.  He  has  to  live  so 
much  on  a  time-table  himself,  you  know,  for 
ever  catching  trains,  and  changing  his  uni 
forms,  and  turning  up  at  the  exact  minute  all 
over  the  place,  laying  corner-stones,  and  open 
ing  docks  and  unveiling  statues,  and  so  on, 
that  it  makes  him  intolerant  of  other  people's 
lapses.  And  he's  got  a  fearful  memory  for 
that  sort  of  thing." 

"I  assume  that  you  speak  of  the  Heir 
Apparent,"  commented  the  other.  "  Am  I  to 
understand  that  you  live  in  a  state  of  personal 
subjection — that  a  nobleman  in  your  position, 
for  example,  contemplates  with  apprehension 
the  contingency  of  causing  even  the  most  triv 
ial  and  transitory  displeasure  to  the  person 
age  alluded  to  ?" 

"Apprehension,  my  dear  sir?  Positive 
horror!  Ah,  you  little  know  the  reality! 
Thoughtless  people  see  us  from  the  outside, 
and  they  lightly  imagine  that  our  lives  are  one 
ceaseless  round  of  luxurious  gaiety  and  gilded 
pleasure.  They  fancy  that  to  have  titles,  to 


March  Hcvres.  167 

bear  hereditary  distinctions,  to  fill  high  places 
at  Court,  must  be  the  sum  of  human  happiness. 
Of  course,  I  suppose  we  do  have  a  better  time 
than  the  average,  but  we  pay  a  price  for  it. 
'  We  smile,  it  is  true,  but  there  is  always  a 
"  shudder  beneath  the  smile.  A  mere  breath,  a 
suspicion,  the  veriest  paltry  whim  of  royal  dis 
favour,  and  we  might  better  never  have  been 
born !  And  so,"  he  finished  with  an  uneasy 
graciousness,  "  you  will  understand  my  abrupt 
leavetaking  now." 

"  I  promise  myself  on  another  occasion, 
sir,"  said  Mr.  Skinner,  with  more  warmth, 
"  the  privilege  of  discussing  these  topics  with 
you  at  length.  I  do  not  deny  that  I  am  my 
self,  to-day,  somewhat  preoccupied,  and  lack 
ing  in  the  power  of  intellectual  concentration. 
Another  occasion,  I  trust,  will  find  me  better 
fitted  to  bestow  upon  these  subjects  the  alert 
ness  of  comprehension  and  clarity  of  judg 
ment  which  their  importance  demands.  At 
the  moment,  I  confess  my  mind  is  burdened 
with  another  matter." 

"  0,  papa— you  haven't  gone  and  lost  your 


168  March  Hares. 


letter  of  credit ! "  The  girl  intervened  with 
accents  of  alarm. 

The  old  gentleman  shook  his  head,  and 
smiled  in  a  dubious  fashion.  "  No,"  he  re 
plied,  hesitatingly,  "it  is  merely  that  I — I 
have  been  enjoined  to  secrecy  about  a  very 
curious  and  interesting  revelation  which  has 
been  made  to  me,  and  concealment  is  pro 
foundly  alien  to  my  nature.  The  necessity  for 
maintaining  a  mysterious  reserve  weighs  upon 
me,  sir,  with  unaccustomed  oppression." 

"It  is  something  that  you  have  learned 
this  morning  ?  "  demanded  the  daughter.  "  I'll 
make  you  tell  me  as  soon  as  we're  alone." 

"  Ah,  that  cannot  be,"  the  father  answered. 
"  My  faith  has  been  honourably  pledged,  and 
must  be  scrupulously  observed." 

"  But  surely  it  couldn't  have  been  stipu 
lated  that  /  was  not  to  know,"  she  urged. 
"That  would  be  absurd.  And  besides,  who 
knows  of  even  my  existence  over  here  ?  " 

"Incomprehensible  as  it  may  appear  to 
your  perceptions,"  responded  Mr.  Skinner,  "  it 
happens  that  you  were  particularly  alluded  to 


March  Hares.  169 

in  the  terms  of  the  confidential  compact  im 
posed  upon  me." 

"  Then  you  had  no  business  to  enter  into 
it  at  all,"  she  replied,  vigorously.  "  Papa,  I 
am  surprised  at  you ! " 

There  was  something  in  his  thoughts 
which  lit  the  old  gentleman's  dry  countenance 
with  a  transient  gleam  of  enjoyment.  "I 
hazard  the  humble  opinion  that  your  surprise 
will  be  appreciably  augmented  when,  at  the 
proper  time,  the  truth  shall  have  been  re 
vealed  to  you."  He  turned,  with  the  flicker- 
ings  of  a  whimsical  smile  in  his  eye,  to  their 
guest.  "It  is  an  extraordinary  coincidence, 
sir ;  but  you  are  also  in  a  manner  associated 
with  the  occult  event  to  which  I  may  not  at 
present  more  pointedly  refer." 

David  musingly  looked  the  old  gentleman 
in  the  eye.  "Yes,  I  know,"  he  answered; 
"  but  I  agree  with  you  that  it  should  not  be 
divulged  to  your  daughter.  As  you  have  said, 
we  men  of  the  world  are  in  duty  bound  to 
keep  a  decent  veil  drawn  over  certain  phases 
of  life.  I  am  quite  with  you  in  that,  sir ;  wo 


170  March  Hares. 

cannot  sufficiently  respect  and  guard  the 
sweet-minded  innocence  of  our  young 
ladies." 

Mr.  Skinner  looked  hard  at  the  nobleman, 
and  drew  up  his  slender  figure.  "  My  mem 
ory,  sir,"  he  announced  stiffly,  "  fails  to  recall 
any  observation  resembling  in  the  slightest 
degree,  either  in  form  or  sentiments,  that 
which  you  have  ascribed  to  me.  j  Forgive  me, 
sir,  if  I  venture  to  further  remind  you  that  I 
have  no  desire  to  regard  myself,  or  to  be  re 
garded,  as  a  man  of  the  world,  in  the  sense  in 
which  I  understand  that  term  to  be  used  by 
the  aristocratic  class  in  Great  Britain." 

The  young  lady  seemed  to  share  her 
father's  feelings  in  the  matter.  "You  must 
remember,  Lord  Drumpipes,"  she  put  in, 
coldly,  "  that  our  standards  in  such  things  are 
not  yours.  I  daresay  it  seems  natural  enough 
to  one  in  your  position,  and  with  your  ante 
cedents  and  associations,  that  a  venerable, 
white-haired  old  gentleman  should  have  dis 
graceful  secrets  which  he  ought  to  conceal 
from  his  family ;  but  we  take  a  different  view 


March  Hares.  171 

of  the  meaning  of  the  word  « gentleman,'  and 
of  the  obligations  which  it  involves." 

"  Ah,  now  I  have  offended  you ! "  cried 
David,  with  a  show  of  remorse.  "I  assure 
you  that  my  only  thought  was  to  help  your 
good  father  out  of  a  fix.  If  I  have  done 
wrong,  I  beg  you  will  put  it  down  to  my  over- 
eagerness  to  be  of  assistance.  And  now,"  he 
stole  a  dismayed  glance  at  his  watch,  "  now  I 
really  must  run.  Good-bye!  Good-bye,  Mr. 
Skinner.  Eemember  that  I  count  upon  that 
famous  discussion  with  you.  And  you  may 
rely  entirely  upon  my  discretion — in  the  mat 
ter  of  your  secret,  you  know." 

Father  and  daughter  stood  for  a  moment, 
gazing  at  the  door  behind  which  their  noble 
guest  had  disappeared.  Then  the  girl  turned 
her  eyes  with  decision  upon  the  author  of  her 
being. 

"Papa,"  she  said,  with  calm  resolution, 
"  what  did  he  intend  to  convey  by  his  remarks 
about  this  secret  of  yours  ?  " 

"  "Why,  Adele,"  the  other  protested,  falter 
ing  a  little  under  her  look,  "  you  yourself  re- 
12 


172  March  Hares. 

pudiated,  in  the  most  eloquent  and  unanswer 
able  words,  the  bare  suggestion  that  I  could 
possibly  be  animated  by  the  desire  to  cloak 
any  unworthy  deed  or  incident  from  your 
observation." 

•"That  was  for  his  benefit,"  she  replied, 
tranquilly.  "  I  was  determined  that  he  should 
know  what  we  thought  of  Ms  code  of  morals. 
But  that  does  not  at  all  affect  the  question  of 
what  you  have  been  doing.  Do  I  understand 
that  you  are  going  to  insist  on  refusing  to  tell 
me  where  you  have  been,  whom  you  have  seen, 
what  your  so-called  secret  is  about  ?  " 

"Adele!"  he  urged,  "I  really  must  pre 
serve  a  reticence  as  to  the  essential  details  of 
the  matter  in  question — perhaps  only  for  a 
few  days — at  least  until  the  obligation  of  se 
crecy  is  removed.  You  would  not  have  me 
recreant  to  my  plighted  faith,  would  you  ?  " 

"But  what  business  had  you  going  and 
making  her  any  such  promise  ?  " 

' "  Her ! "  Mr.  Skinner  said,  feebly  smiling ; 
"you  jest,  my  dear  Adele.  How  can  you 
conceivably  imagine  it  was  a  '  her '  ?  " 


Ma/i 'ch  Hares.  173 


"  I  don't  imagine ;  I  know,"  responded  the 
daughter,  with  a  hard,  dry  smile.  "  You  have 
been  seeing  that  yellow-haired  girl  that  Lord 
Drumpipes  had  with  him  at  the  Museum  yes 
terday.  The  letter  which  summoned  you 
forth  this  morning  was  from  her.  You  made 
some  paltering  excuses  to  me,  and  went  out  to 
meet  her— and  you  won't  look  me  in  the  eye 
and  deny  it." 

In  truth  he  did  not  take  up  her  challenge. 
He  hung  his  head,  looked  away,  and  shuffled 
with  his  feet.  "  All  I  am  at  liberty  to  say," 
he  remarked  at  last,  with  visible  emotion,  "  is 
that  my  grief  at  being  compelled  to  rest  tem 
porarily  under  the  unwelcome  shadow  of  your 
suspicion  is,  to  some  slight  extent,  mitigated 
by  the  consciousness  that  when  you  know  all 
you  will  do  ample  justice  to  the  probity  of  my 
motives  and  the  honourable  character  of  my 
actions.  I  might  even  go  further,  and  express 
the  conviction  that  the  outcome  will  be  of  a 
nature  to  afford  you  unalloyed  personal  satis 
faction." 

«  That  may  all  be,"  returned  Adele ;  "  but, 


174  March  Hares. 

in  the  meantime,  you  don't  go  out  in  London 
any  more  by  yourself ! " 

Mosscrop  laughed  to  himself  as  he  ran 
down  the  stairs  of  the  hotel.  The  spirit  of 
mirth  remained  with  him  while  he  more 
slowly  ascended  the  flight  of  steps,  and  the 
dingy  passage  and  covered  by-way  leading  up 
to  the  Strand.  It  was  the  most  comical  thing 
he  had  ever  heard  of,  and  he  chuckled  again 
and  again  during  the  climb.  But  upon  the 
bustling  crowded  thoroughfare  it  somehow 
ceased  to  seem  so  funny,  or  at  least  its  value 
as  a  source  of  entertainment  began  to  dimin 
ish  rapidly.  He  found  his  mind  reverting  ir 
resistibly  to  the  disappointment  of  the  early 
morning.  The  image  of  Vestalia  rose  upon 
his  mental  vision,  and  would  not  go  away. 
He  brooded  over  it  as  he  walked,  and  recog 
nised  that  intervening  incidents  and  personali 
ties  had  in  no  sense  dimmed  his  interest  in  it. 
He  pictured  her  wonderful  hair  again,  her 
bright-faced  smile,  her  dear  little  airs  and 
graces,  with  a  yearning  emptiness  of  heart. 


March  Hares.  175 

The  luncheon  obtainable  at  the  Barbary 
Club  was  even  more  unpalatable  than  usual, 
which  was  saying  much.  The  familiar  fact 
that  the  waiters  were  Germans  struck  him 
afresh,  and  took  on  the  proportions  of  an  in 
ternational  grievance.  There  were  some  fel 
lows  upstairs  playing  at  what  they  supposed 
was  whist.  He  stood  for  a  while  over  the 
shoulders  of  a  couple  of  the  gamesters,  and 
noted,  with  a  cynical  eye,  the  progress  of  their 
hot  rivalry  as  to  which  should  contribute  the 
larger  incapacity  and  the  finer  stupidity  to 
the  losing  of  the  rubber.  When  they  asked 
him  if  he  wanted  to  cut  in,  he  turned  away 
with  a  snort  of  derisive  scorn. 

Over  in  the  billiard-room  there  were  only 
the  marker  and  the  member  who  played  far 
worse  than  anybody  else  in  the  club.  David 
sourly  consented  to  occupy  himself  with  this 
egregious  outsider,  and  was  beaten  by  him. 
The  result  was  so  clearly  due  to  accident  that 
he  laid  some  money  on  the  next  game.  Again 
the  duffer  fluked  like  mad,  and  won,  and  in  a 
third  game  his  luck  was  of  such  a  glaring 


176  Ma/rch  Ha/res. 

character,  that  Mosscrop  could  not  refrain 
from  loud  comment.  This  his  antagonist  re 
sented.  They  parted  with  harsh  words,  and 
Mosscrop,  cursing  the  hour  when  it  first  oc 
curred  to  him  to  identify  himself  with  such  a 
squalid  pot-house,  hastened  angrily  to  shake 
its  dust  from  his  feet. 

He  made  his  way,  by  devious  streets  whose 
old  book-stalls  for  once  beckoned  him  in  vain, 
to  Bloomsbury  and  the  Museum.  A  kind  of 
idea  had  grown  up  unobtrusively  in  the  back 
ground  of  his  thoughts,  that  possibly  he  might 
find  Vestalia  there.  It  assumed  the  definite 
outlines  of  an  expectation  as  soon  as  he  en 
tered  the  building.  When  he  stood  in  the 
reading-room  itself,  and  began  a  systematic 
scrutiny  of  its  radiating  rows  of  readers,  it 
was  with  as  much  confidence  as  if  he  had 
come  by  appointment.  The  failure  to  dis 
cover  her  disturbed  and  annoyed  him.  He 
made  a  slow  tour  of  the  inner  circle,  then  an 
other  of  the  broader  outer  ring,  and  suffered 
no  one  of  the  professed  students  to  escape  his 
examining  eye. 


Ma/rcTi  Hares.  177 

What  a  crew  they  were!  He  had  never 
realised  it  before.  His  hostile  inspection  laid 
bare  the  puerile  devices  of  the  young  fools 
who  came  by  concerted  arrangement,  took 
down  books  at  random,  and,  sitting  close  to 
gether,  carried  on  clandestine  flirtations  under 
the  sightless  mask  of  literature.  He  glowered 
with  a  newly-informed  vision  at  the  extraor 
dinary  females  whom  no  one  had  planned  to 
meet — the  lone  women  with  eccentric  coiffures 
and  startling  costumes,  who  emerge  from 
heaven  knows  where,  and  mysteriously  gather 
here  in  quest  of  something  which  it  seems  in 
credible  that  even  heaven  should  be  able  to 
define.  Observing  now  the  vacuous  egotism 
of  their  flutterings  and  posturings  in  other 
people's  way,  the  despairing  clutch  at  public 
attention  made  by  their  outlandish  vestiture 
and  general  get-up,  David's  thoughts  settled 
grimly  upon  the  fact  that  there  were  lands, 
the  seats  of  ancient  civilizations,  where  super 
fluous  female  children  were  drowned  at  birth. 
Here,  lie  reflected,  with  sullen  irony,  we  teach 
them  to  read  and  write,  and  build  and  stock 


178  March  Hares. 

a  vast  reading-room  for  them  instead.     His 
mood  preferred  the  Ganges  to  the  Thames. 

There  was  more  pathos  in  the  spectacle  of 
another  class  of  habitual  attendants — the  poor, 
shabby,  hungry  serfs  of  the  quotation  mer 
chant.  Mosscrop  knew  the  genus  by  sight, 
and  in  other  times  had  had  amusement  from 
their  contemplation.  Now  a  sombre  rage  pos 
sessed  him  as  he  beheld  them  toiling  unin- 
telligently,  hopelessly,  under  the  lash  of  starva 
tion.  He  watched  one  of  the  slave-drivers  for 
a  while,  a  short,  red  man,  of  swollen  spiderish 
aspect,  who  moved  about  keeping  these  sweated 
wretches  at  their  toil,  now  doling  out  a  few 
pence  to  one  who  could  remain  erect  unnour- 
ished  not  a  minute  longer,  and  who  slunk  out 
forthwith  with  a  wolfish  haste,  now  withering 
some  other  with  whispered  reproaches  of 
threats.  Mosscrop  longed  to  go  and  break  this 
creature's  neck,  or  at  the  very  least  to  kick  him, 
with  loud  curses  and  utmost  contumely,  from 
the  room. 

He  went  out  himself,  instead,  animated  by 
a  freshening  spirit  of  resentment  at  the  futility 


March  Ha/res.  179 

of  existence.  From  sheer  force  of  habit,  he 
dawdled  in  front  of  shop- windows,  turned  over 
books  and  prints  in  one  after  another  of  his 
accustomed  resorts  for  second-hand  merchan 
dise,  and  otherwise  killed  time  till  the  dinner 
hour.  But  he  did  it  all  without  any  inner 
pretence  that  the  process  afforded  him  consola 
tion.  Even  when  he  met  some  fellows  from 
the  Temple,  in  Chancery  Lane,  and  joined 
them  in  a  series  of  visits  to  ancient  bars  in  the 
vicinity,  where  they  all  stood  at  wearisome 
length,  and  argued  with  intolerable  inconse 
quence  about  wholly  irrevelant  matters  over 
their  drinks,  his  thoughts  maintained  a  moody 
concentration  upon  the  theme  of  his  personal 
unhappiness.  The  stray  contributions  which  he 
offered  to  the  general  conversation  were  all  of 
an  acrid,  not  to  say  truculent,  character.  He 
had  a  sort  of  dour  satisfaction  in  the  utterance 
of  offensive  gibes  and  bitter  jokes.  Twice  the 
threat  of  an  altercation  arose,  in  consequence 
of  these  ill-natured  comments  of  his,  and  David 
sullenly  welcomed  the  imminent  quarrel ;  but . 
the  intervention  of  the  others,  without  any  help 


180  March  Hares. 

from  him,  cleared  the  atmosphere  again.  Even 
the  peacemakers,  however,  evinced  the  opinion 
that  he  was  behaving  badly,  and  nodded  cheer 
ful  adieus  when  at  last  he  declared  that  they 
were  a  parcel  of  uninspired  loons,  with  whom 
he  marvelled  to  find  himself  consuming  valu 
able  time.  They  lifted  their  glasses  at  him 
mockingly  as  he  strode  away,  with  the  gleam 
of  an  unexpressed  "  good  riddance  !  "  in  their 
eyes. 

The  consciousness  that  he  had  made  him 
self  disagreeable  to  these  fellows  had  its  uses  as 
a  counter-irritant  to  his  inner  self-disgust.  It 
rendered  solitude  at  least  a  trifle  more  support 
able.  He  bought  a  novel,  and  read  it  beside 
his  plate  at  Simpson's,  where  the  heavy  joints 
and  weighty  old  ale  just  fitted  his  mood.  The 
book  was  one  which  the  papers  were  talking  of 
for  the  moment.  David  reflected  grimly  as  he 
skimmed  the  opening  chapters  that  Vestalia 
had  asked  him  why  he  didn't  write  a  Scotch 
novel.  They  were  all  the  vogue,  she  said,  and 
while  the  fashion  lasted,  it  was  nonsense  for 
any  Scotchman  to  pretend  that  he  could  not 


March  Hares.  181 

profitably  occupy  his  leisure  time.  He  had  re 
plied,  with  some  flippancy,  that  his  imagina 
tive  powers  might  compass  the  construction  of 
a  tale,  but  were  unequal  to  the  task  of  invent- , 
ing  also  a  whole  dialect  to  tell  it  in.  Now,  as 
the  whim  returned  to  him,  his  fancy  parodied 
a  title  for  this  unborn  work.  How  would  "  A 
Goddess,  Some  Merely  Ordinary  Fools  and 
Lord  Drumpipes  "  do  ? 

Ah !  that  Drumpipes !  David  paid  his  bill, 
lit  a  cigar,  and  sallied  forth,  suddenly  informed 
with  the  notion  of  going  to  the  Inn,  and  hav 
ing  it  out  with  the  Earl.  He  doubled  up  his 
fists  as  he  hurried  along. 

The  top  floor  at  Dunstan's  was  wrapped  in 
darkness.  Mosscrop  knocked  and  kicked  first 
at "  Mr.  Linkhaw's  "  door  to  make  sure  that  no 
one  was  in,  then  opened  his  own,  and  struck  a 
light.  The  apartment  wore  still  in  his  eyes 
the  chill  desolation  of  aspect  which  he  remem 
bered  from  the  morning.  There  had  been  a 
change  in  the  weather,  and  the  suggestion  of  a 
fire  was  in  the  damp  air.  He  put  on  his  loose 
jacket  and  slippers,  recalling  sadly  as  he  did 


182  March  Hares. 

so  the  vision  he  had  beheld  only  twenty-four 
hours  before,  of  that  pretty  little  ermined  foot 
gear  on  the  fender  beside  his,  in  front  of  the 
glowing  grate.  He  brought  out  the  decanter 
and  a  glass,  and  sighed  deeply. 

Then  all  at  once  he  caught  sight  of  some 
thing  white  in  the  letter  box.  In  the  same 
instant  he  was  tearing  open  a  stamped  en 
velope,  addressed  in  a  large,  strange  hand 
which  yet  he  knew  so  well,  and  excitedly 
striving  to  gulp  in  the  meaning  of  the  whole 
written  page  before  him,  without  troubling  to 
read  the  lines  in  their  sequence.  Yes,  it  was 
from  her,  and — yes,  it  contained  words  of 
kindness  and  even  of  tenderness  which  shone 
brilliantly  forth  here  and  there  from  the  con 
text.  He  pulled  himself  together,  and  walk 
ing  over  to  the  light,  began  resolutely  at  the 
beginning. 

"  DEAR  MR.  MOSSCROP, — I  hope  you  were 
not  very  much  disappointed  at  finding  me 
gone  this  morning,  or  rather,  I  hope  you  were 
a  little  disappointed,  but  will  not  be  so  any 


March  Hares.  183 

longer  when  you  get  this  explanation.  I  don't 
know  either  that  it  can  be  called  an  explana 
tion,  for  it  doesn't  seem  to  me  that  I  am  at  all 
able  to  explain  even  to  myself,  much  less  to 
you. 

"  The  fact  is  that  you  were  so  kind  and  so 
sweet  to  me,  that  I  simply  had  to  do  what  I 
have  done.  I  saw  it  all,  after  we  had  parted. 
Under  the  circumstances,  and  especially  con 
sidering  the  delicate  and  noble  manner  in 
which  you  had  treated  me,  it  was  the  only 
thing  I  could  do  ! 

"  I  should  have  left  a  message  for  you  in 
your  letter-box,  but  there  was  not  a  scrap  of 
paper,  not  even  a  book  out  of  which  I  could 
tear  a  fly-leaf,  in  Mr.  Linkhaw's  room,  nor 
writing  materials  of  any  sort.  I  have  bought 
this  paper  at  the  stationer's,  and  am  writing 
this  note  in  an  hotel  writing-room. 

"The  dear  dressing-bag,  and  the  other 
beautiful  things  which  I  owe  to  you,  I  took 
away  with  tne  because  it  would  have  broken 
my  heart  to  leave  them,  and  I  felt  sure  you 
would  be  glad  to  have  me  take  them.  Every 


184  March  Hares. 

time  I  look  at  them,  and  all  other  times  too,  I 
shall  think  of  the  best  man  I  ever  knew  or 
dreamed  of.  Something  very  important  has 
occurred,  which  may  turn  out  to  be  of  the 
greatest  possible  advantage  to  me.  It  is  very 
uncertain  as  yet,  and  I  cannot  tell  you  about 
it  at  present,  but  soon  I  hope  to  be  able  to 
do  so. 

"  In  the  meantime,  please  believe  in  my 
undying  gratitude.  VESTALIA." 

David  drew  a  long  breath,  poured  a  drink  for 
himself,  lit  his  pipe,  and  sat  down  to  read  the 
letter  all  over  again.  He  arrived  slowly  at  the 
conclusion  that  he  was  glad  she  had  written  it 
— but  beyond  that  his  sensations  remained  ob 
stinately  undefined.  The  girl  had  disappeared 
behind  a  thick  high  wall  which  his  imagina 
tion  was  unequal  to  the  task  of  surmounting. 
A  few  stray  facts  assumed  a  certain  distinct 
ness  in  his  mind :  she  had  evidently  gone  off. 
quite  of  her  own  accord,  and  she  had  appreci 
ated  the  spirit  of  his  attitude  towards  her  the 
previous  day,  and  she  had  encountered  on  this, 


March  Hares.  185 

the  following  day,  something  or  somebody 
which  might  bring  her  good  luck.  What  kind 
of  good  luck  ?  he  wondered. 

There  was  an  implied  promise  in  her  words 
that  he  should  be  informed  when  this  mys 
terious  beneficence  assumed  shape.  This  had 
very  little  comfort  in  it  for  him.  In  fact, 
he  found  he  rather  hated  the  idea  of  her 
enjoying  good  luck  in  which  he  had  no 
share. 

Suppose  instead  that  it  didn't  come  off. 
Would  she  return  to  him  then,  or  at  least  let 
him  know,  so  that  he  might  hasten  forward 
again  as  her  special  providence  ? 

Ah,  that  is  what  he  had  wanted  to  be — her 
providence.  The  notion  of  doing  everything 
for  her,  of  being  the  source  of  all  she  had,  of 
foreseeing  her  wants,  inventing  her  pleasures, 
ministering  joyfully  to  the  least  of  her  sweet 
little  caprices — the  charm  of  this  role  fascinated 
him  more  than  ever.  He  recalled  in  detail, 
the  emotions  of  delight  he  had  experienced  in 
buying  things  for  her.  By  some  law  which 
he  recognised  without  analysing,  the  greatest 


186  March  Hares. 

pleasure  had  arisen  from  the  purchase  of  the 
articles  which  she  needed  most.  There  had 
been  only  a  moderate  and  tempered  ecstasy  in 
paying  for  champagne,  but  oh,  the  bliss  of 
buying  her  boots,  and  those  curling-irons,  and 
the  comb !  He  thrilled  again  with  it,  in 
retrospect.  What  would  it  have  been  to 
see  her  clad  entirely  in  garments  of  his  pro 
viding  ? 

But  the  cage  was  empty — the  bird  had 
flown.  Would  she  come  back  again?  Was 
there  really  the  remotest  hint  of  such  a  possi 
bility  in  her  letter  ? 

No.  He  read  it  still  again,  and  shook  his 
head  at  the  fender  with  a  despairing  groan. 
The  gloom  of  his  reverie  benumbed  his  senses. 
He  let  his  pipe  go  out,  and  suffered  the  glass 
at  his  elbow  to  remain  untouched,  as  he  sat 
with  his  sad  thoughts  for  company,  and  did 
not  even  hear  the  footsteps  which  presently 
ascended  the  stairs. 

A  soft  little  knock  at  the  door  startled 
him  from  his  meditations.  He  stood  up, 
with  his  heart  fluttering,  and  lifted  his  hand 


March  Hares.  187 

in  wonderment  to  his  brow.     Had  he  been 
asleep  and  dreaming  ? 

The  dainty  tapping  on  the  panel  renewed 
itself.  David  moved  as  in  a  trance  toward  the 
door. 


13 


CHAPTER  IX. 

MOSSCROP  turned  the  spring-lock  noise 
lessly,  and  drew  the  door  open  with  caressing 
gentleness.  His  eyes  had  intuitively  prepared 
themselves  to  discern  the  slender  form  of 
Yestalia  in  the  dim  light  of  the  passage. 
They  beheld  instead,  with  bewildered  repul 
sion,  a  burly  masculine  bulk.  Wandering 
upward  in  angry  confusion  from  the  level  on 
which  they  had  expected  her  dear  face,  they 
took  in  the  fatuous,  moon-like  visage  of  Lord 
Drumpipes. 

"  Dear  God ! "  groaned  David,  in  frank 
abandonment  to  disgust. 

"I  came  up  quietly  this  time,"  said  the 
Earl.  "  You  made  such  a  row  about  my 
being  noisy  last  night,  I  thought  to  myself, 
4  Now,  anything  to  please  Davie !  I'll  steal  up 
like  a  mouse  iii  list-slippers.' " 

188 


Ma/rch  Ho/res.  189 


David  scowled  angry  impatience  at  him. 
"Who  the  deuce  cares  what  you  do?"    he 
demanded,     roughly.      "You     might     have  ' 
marched  up  with  a  Salvation  Army  band,  for 
all  it  matters  to  me." 

"Ah,"  said  Drumpipes,  placidly  pushing 
his  way  past  Mosscrop  through  the  open  door. 
"  Well,  give  me  a  drink,  Davie,  man,  and  then 
tell  me  all  about  it.  Where  may  the  lady  be 
at  the  present  moment  ?  " 

Mosscrop  came  in,  and  produced  another 
glass  with  a  gloomy  air.  He  watched  the 
Earl  seat  himself  in  the  biggest  chair  and 
help  himself  from  the  decanter,  and  light  his 
pipe,  all  in  moody  silence.  "  She's  gone 
away,"  he  said  at  last,  coldly. 

"  And  a  good  job,  too ! "  remarked  the 
other.  "  Distrust  all  yellow-hair,  Davie ! 
Have  you  been  in  my  place  and  seen  what 
that  woman  did?  There  was  my  Athabaska 
moose  actually  torn  from  the  wall,  and  pulled 
to  bits  on  the  floor!  It's  a  matter  of  fifty 
shillings,  or  even  more,  Davie.  Considering 
what  you'd  already  spent  on  her,  I  call  that 


190  March  Hares. 


heartless  behaviour  on  her  part.  She  must  be 
a  bad  sort  indeed  to  take  all  you  would  give 
her,  and  fool  you  to  the  top  of  your  bent,  and 
then  wantonly  destroy  property  that  she  knew 
you'd  have  to  make  good,  before  she  took 
French  leave.  Ah,  women  are  not  given  that 
kind  of  hair  for  nothing  !  You're  well  out  of 
a  thankless  mess,  Davie." 

Mosscrop  looked  musingly  at  his  friend. 
He  smiled  a  little  to  himself,  and  then  sighed 
as  well.  A  calmer  temper  returned  to  him. 
"  I  don't  take  your  view  of  it,  Archie,"  he  said, 
almost  gently.  "  I  have  been  as  sad  about  it 
as  a  child  who's  lost  its  pet,  but  I'm  less  dis 
consolate  than  I  was.  Some  compensations 
occur  to  me — and  besides,  I  have  a  letter  from 
her.  It  came  to-night,  and  from  its  tone " 

"Burn  it,  man,  burn  it!"  the  other  ad 
jured  him,  with  eager  fervour.  "  Drive  the 
whole  business  from  your  mind !  If  you'll 
give  me  your  solemn  word,  Davie,  not  to  see 
her  again " — the  Earl  paused,  to  invest  his 
further  words  with  a  deeper  gravity — "  if  you'll 
promise  faithfully  to  have  no  more  to  do  with 


March  Ha/res.  191 

her,  I'll  forgive  you  the  moose.  I  said  fifty 
shillings,  but  I  doubt  your  getting  a  good  job 
much  under  three  pounds.  Well,  then,  if  you 
say  the  word,  I'll  pocket  that  loss.  Hang  it 
all,  you're  my  boyhood  friend,  and  I'd  go  to  a 
considerable  length  to  save  you  from  a  dan 
gerous  entanglement  of  this  sort.  Although 
it  was  by  no  means  an  ordinary  head.  Man,  I 
fair  loved  that  moosie ! " 

Mosscrop's  smooth-shaven  and  somewhat 
sallow  visage  had  gradually  lost  its  melancholy 
aspect.  A  cheerful  grin  began  now  to  play 
about  the  corners  of  his  mouth.  "  Archie,"  he 
said  with  an  affectation  of  exaggerated  seri 
ousness,  "  a  moose  more  or  less  is  not  worth 
mentioning  by  comparison  with  the  situation 
which  is  about  to  confront  you.  I  know  the 
particular  beast  you  speak  of.  It  was  not  up 
to  much.  The  fur  was  dropping  out  in  patches 
on  its  neck,  one  of  its  eyes  was  loose,  and  the 
red  paint  on  the  nostrils  was  oxidized.  You 
would  not  have  got  twelve-and-six  for  it  any 
where  in  the  world.  But  if  it  had  been  the 
choicest  trophy  that  was  ever  mounted,  and 


192  Mcvrch  Ha/res. 

then  its  value  were  multiplied  a  hundred-fold, 
it  would  still  be  a  waste  of  your  time  to  give 
it  a  second  thought.  Graver  matters  demand 
your  attention,  Archie." 

The  Earl's  countenance  lengthened,  and  he 
set  down  his  glass.  He  apparently  did  not 
trust  himself  to  speak,  but  stared  in  alarmed 
inquiry  at  his  friend. 

"  As  you  said  a  while  ago,"  pursued  David, 
with  vexatious  deliberation,  "we  have  been 
pals  from  boyhood.  My  father  was  your 
grandfather's  man  of  business,  and  was  your 
factor  till  his  death.  You  and  I  played  to 
gether  before  we  were  breeched.  We  went  to 
school  together,  and  I  spent  more  holidays  at 
Skirl  with  you  than  I  did  at  home.  So  I  know 
the  ins  and  outs  of  your  family  and  its  affairs 
practically  as  well  as  you  do.  I  know  your 
sisters " 

"  You  don't  mean  that  Ellen  has  given  up 
her  Zenana  mission  work  in  Burmah,  and  re 
turned  here  to  England  ?  "  Drumpipes  inter 
posed,  with  a  convulsive  catch  in  his  breath. 

"  ~No ;  the  Lady  Ellen,  so  far  as  I  know,  is 


March  Hares.  193 

still  peacefully  occupied  in  harrowing  up  the 
domestic  life  of  the  Orient  in  her  well-known 
and  most  effective  manner." 

"Well,  anything  else  must  be  a  minor 
evil,"  said  the  Earl,  with  an  accent  of  relief. 
"  Whichever  of  the  rest  of  them  it  is,  Davie,  I 
tell  you  at  the  outset  that  I  wash  my  hands  of 
the  business.  My  sisters  rendered  the  first 
twenty-five  years  of  my  life  a  torment  upon 
earth.  They  bullied  me  out  of  all  peace  in 
life  as  a  youngster ;  they  made  my  rotten  mar 
riage  for  me ;  they  took  my  money  and  then 
blackened  my  character  in  reward ;  they " 

"  Oh,  I  know  all  those  gags  by  heart,"  in 
terposed  Mosscrop.  "  They're  really  very  de 
cent  bodies,  those  sisters  of  yours ;  if  they  had 
a  fault,  it  was  in  believing  that  they  could 
make  a  silk  purse  out  of  a  sow's  ear.  But  it's 
not  about  them  at  all  that  I  was  speaking. 
The  point  is,  Archie,  that  I  have  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Mr.  Laban  Skinner  and  his 
extremely  attractive  daughter." 

The  Earl  took  in  this  intelligence  with 
ponderous  slowness.  He  sipped  at  his  glass  in 


194  March  Ha/res. 

silence,  and  then  stared  for  a  little  at  his 
friend.  "Well,  what  is  there  so  alarming 
about  that  ? "  he  demanded  at  last,  roughen 
ing  his  voice  in  puzzled  annoyance.  "  They're 
respectable  people,  aren't  they?  And  what 
the  deuce  are  you  driving  at,  anyway  ?  " 

"  Ah,  if  you  take  that  tone  with  me,  old 
man,  I  pull  out  of  the  affair  at  once." 

Drumpipes  scowled.  "  What  affair  ?  How 
do  you  know  there  is  any  affair !  And  what 
business  have  you  got  being  in  it,  if  there  is  an 
affair  ?  You're  over-officious,  my  friend.  You 
take  too  much  on  yourself." 

Mosscrop  laughed  with  tantalising  enjoy 
ment  in  his  eyes.  "  Confess  that  you  think  of 
making  a  Countess  of  the  lady." 

"Well,  and  what  if  I  do?"  the  Earl  re 
torted.  "  Damn  it  all,  man,  I  haven't  to  ask 
your  leave,  have  I  ?  And,  come  now,  I  put  it 
to  you  straight,  have  you  ever  seen  a  finer 
woman  in  your  life  ?  " 

David  lifted  his  brows  judicially,  and  held 
his  head  to  one  side.  "  Oh,  I'm  not  saying 
she's  amiss — in  externals,"  he  admitted. 


March  Hares.  195 

"  Man,  she's  wonderful !  Just  wonder 
ful  ! "  cried  the  other.  "  Did  you  mind  her 
walk  ?  It  is  as  if  she'd  never  been  outside  a 
palace  in  her  life.  And  the  face,  the  eyes,  the 
colour,  the  figure — what  Queen  in  Europe  can 
match  them?  Man,  since  I  first  laid  eyes  on 
her,  I've  not  been  myself  at  all.  The  thought 
of  her  bewitches  me.  I  hardly  know  what 
I'm  doing.  I've  been  to-day  to  my  tailor's, 
and  I  gave  him  orders  that  fair  took  his  breath 
away.  The  most  expensive  clothes,  and  even 
furs,  I  ordered  with  as  light  a  heart  as  if  it  were 
a  matter  of  sixpences.  The  man  knows  me 
from  childhood,  and  he  gazed  at  me  as  if  I  was 
clean  daft.  He  was  shaking  his  head  to  him 
self  when  I  came  away.  Oh,  I'm  quite  a  dif 
ferent  person,  I  assure  you.  I  literally  hurl 
money  about  me,  nowadays." 

"  You  must  indeed  be  in  love,"  said  Moss- 
crop.  <s  The  father — he  gives  one  the  notion 
of  a  man  of  wealth." 

The  Earl's  face  glistened.  "He's  in  the 
Standard  Oil  Company  ! "  he  whispered,  im 
pressively. 


196  Marcli  Hares. 

This  fact  created  an  atmosphere  of  digni 
fied  solemnity  for  itself.  The  two  men  looked 
at  each  other  gravely  for  a  while,  saying  noth 
ing.  Then  the  Earl,  with  a  contemplative  air, 
refilled  his  glass. 

"She  is  the  most  beautiful  woman  I've 
ever  known,"  he  said,  earnestly ;  "  and  I  think 
she  will  marry  me." 

"Physical  beauty  and  Standard  Oil  do 
make  an  alluring  combination,"  remarked 
David  philosophically ;  "  but " 

"  Oh,  there  are  no  *  buts,'  "  Drum- 
pipes  insisted.  "  She's  as  fine  in  mind 
and  temper  as  she  is  in  body.  I'm  very 
particular  about  intellect,  as  you  know, 
and  I've  studied  her  closely.  She  has  a 
very  sound  brain,  Davie — for  a  woman. 
But  how  on  earth  did  you  come  to  stumble 
upon  them  ?  " 

Mosscrop  did  not  explain.  "The  thing 
that  impressed  me  about  her,  curiously 
enough,"  he  said,  with  tranquil  discursiveness, 
"  was  her  extremely  democratic  aversion  to 
our  ranks  and  hereditary  titles.  She  and  her 


March  Hares.  197 

father  seem  to  be  the  most  violent  anti-aristo 
crats  I  ever  knew." 

"  Yes,  that  is  a  trifle  awkward,"  the  Earl 
admitted.  "  I  don't  think  it's  more  than 
skin-deep  with  the  old  man,  but  Adele — that's 
her  name,  as  beautiful  as  herself,  isn't  it  ? — 
she's  tremendously  in  earnest  about  it.  That 
has  rather  queered  my  pitch — I  haven't  told 
them,  you  know,  about  the  title  and  all  that. 
They  know  me  just  as  simple  Mr.  Linkhaw." 

"  «  Simple  '  is  so  precisely  the  word,"  com 
mented  Mosscrop. 

"  Well,  what  was  I  to  do  ?  "  the  other  pro 
tested  in  self-defence.  "  I  was  travelling  un 
der  that  name  in  Kentucky — went  there  to 
look  at  a  big  sale  of  thoroughbreds,  you  know 
— and  met  the  father,  and  then  I  met  the  girl, 
and  they  had  me  to  their  house  in  the  country 
— a  magnificent  place,  by  George — and  she 
had  so  much  to  say  against  the  classes  here, 
and  took  such  a  strong  position  against  titles 
and  all  that — why,  I  would  have  been  a  jug 
gins  to  tell  her  at  the  start;  and  after,  it 
gradually  occurred  to  me  that  I  wouldn't  say 


198  March  Hares. 

anything  at  all,  but  just  go  on  and  win  her  as 
plain  Mr.  Linkhaw.  Then  I  could  be  sure  I 
was  being  loved  for  myself  alone,  couldn't  I  ?  " 

"Your  sentimentality  is  most  touching," 
said  David ;  "  but  I  fear  it  will  cost  you 
heavily." 

"  Oh,  by  the  way,  yes,"  remarked  Drum- 
pipes,  collecting  his  thoughts ;  "  you  said 
something  awhile  ago  about  there  being  a 
bother  of  some  sort.  What  is  it  ?  "  Then  an 
idea  occurred  to  him,  and  he  lifted  his  head 
eagerly.  "  You  haven't  gone  and  blabbed 
about  me,  have  you— told  her  who  I  was,  and 
all  that?" 

"  Quite  the  contrary,"  smiled  David.  "  It 
was  she  who  recognised  me  at  once  as  the  Earl 
of  Drumpipes.  It  seems  you  showed  her  my 
picture  on  shipboard,  and  told  her  who  I  was, 
and  all  about  me.  Do  you  recall  the  inci 
dent?" 

The  Earl  nodded,  foolishly.  "  It's  my  con 
founded  imagination,"  he  groaned.  "  I'm  al 
ways  making  an  ass  of  myself  like  that.  God 
only  knows  why  I  should  have  gone  out  of  my 


March  Hcvres.  199 

way  to  invent  that  idiotic  rubbish.  But  you 
get  awfully  hard  up  for  conversation  on  ship 
board,  you  know.  And  so  it  all  came  out,  and 
she's  chuckling  to  think  what  a  clumsy  liar 
and  guy  I  made  of  myself — and  I've  gone  and 
ordered  all  those  clothes — and " 

"Be  reassured,  most  noble  Thane,"  cried 
David,  gaily.  "  There  has  been  no  disclosure. 
Nothing  came  out.  I  accepted  the  situation. 
I  did  not  for  an  instant  betray  you.  I  said, 
*  Certainly:  I  am  the  Earl  of  Drumpipes,' 
without  so  much  as  the  nicker  of  an  eyelid. 
There's  friendship  for  you,  if  you  like." 

"And  did  she  believe—"  the  Earl  began 
to  ask.  Then  he  choked  with  rising  mirth, 
gasped,  rolled  about  in  his  chair,  and  finally 
burst  forth  in  resounding  laughter.  "  She 
thinks  you — you  " — he  started  out  again,  and 
once  more  went  off  in  loud  merriment.  "  It's 
the  funniest  thing  I  ever  heard  of,"  he  mur 
mured  at  last,  restoring  his  composure  with 
difficulty,  and  grinning  at  Mosscrop  through  '• 
eyes  wet  with  joyful  tears. 

"  It   delights  me   to   see  how  keenly  the 


200  March  Hares. 


humorous  aspect  of  the  matter  appeals  to 
you,"  observed  David,  "because  there  is  an 
other  phase  of  it  which  may  seem  to  be  de 
ficient  in  gaiety." 

"  No ;  you  as  the  Earl,  that's  too  funny ! " 
persisted  Drumpipes,  with  a  fresh  outbreak  of 
laughter.  But  this  somehow  rang  a  little  false 
at  the  finish.  A  half-doubtful  look  came  into 
his  eyes,  and  sobered  his  countenance.  "  But 
you'll  stand  by  me  in  this  thing,  old  man,  now 
that  you've  begun  it,  won't  you  ?  "  he  asked,  in 
in  an  altered  tone. 

"  But  I  didn't  begin  it,"  David  pointed  out 
calmly.  "  You  began  it  yourself,  and  she  took 
it  up  of  her  own  accord.  I've  simply  sacri 
ficed  myself  in  your  interest.  I  stood  still, 
and  heard  my  motives  aspersed,  my  character 
vilified,  my  objects  in  life  covered  with  con 
tumely,  all  on  account  of  your  hereditary 
crimes,  and  took  it  all  like  a  lamb.  But  to 
assume  that  I'm  going  to  do  this  again,  or  in 
definitely,  is  another  matter.  I  don't  mind 
submitting  to  a  single  temporary  humiliation 
for  a  friend's  sake,  but  to  make  a  profession  of 


March  Hares.  201 


it  is  too  much.  If  it  were  even  a  decent  full 
blown  peerage  it  might  be  different,  but  to  be 
traduced  for  nothing  better  than  a  Scotch  title 
— no,  thank  you ! " 

"You're  not  the  friend  I  took  you  for," 
commented  the  Earl,  in  depressed  tones. 
"For  that  matter,"  he  added,  defiantly,  "we 
were  Pilliewillies  in  Slug-Angus  before  the 
Campbells  were  ever  heard  of,  or  the  Gordons 
had  learnt  not  to  eat  their  cattle  raw.  And 
no  Linkhaw  has  ever  said  to  a  Mosscrop,  *  I 
see  you're  in  a  hole  and  I'll  leave  you 
there.'" 

David  smiled.  "No,  you  would  always 
give  a  hand — for  a  fixed  price.  Well,  Archie, 
I'm  not  saying  I  won't  see  you  through  all 
this,  but  there  must  be  conditions.  And 
there  must  be  a  plan.  What  on  earth  do 
you  intend  to  do  ?  " 

"Well,  my  idea  is,"  the  other  answered, 
hesitatingly,  "  that  I  should  ask  her  to  be  my 
wife  while  she  still  supposes  I  am  merely  Mr. 
Linkhaw.  She  is  like  all  American  girls  in 
this,  that  she  believes  entirely  in  love  matches. 


202  March  Hares. 

So  if  she  will  marry  me  as  Mr.  Linkhaw,  it 
will  signify  that  she  loves  me.  Very  well  then, 
that  being  the  case,  I  can  say  to  her  afterward 
that  I  ventured  upon  a  trifling  deception,  solely 
to  have  the  chance  to  win  the  woman  I  wanted, 
and  to  make  sure  that  I  was  being  loved  for 
myself  alone.  And  then,  hang  it  all,  I  don't 
believe  it  lies  in  any  woman's  skin  to  be  angry 
at  finding  that  she's  been  made  a  countess  un 
awares.  If  I  said  I  was  an  Earl  and  turned 
out  not  to  be  one,  then  she'd  have  a  grievance, 
but  it's  the  other  way  about." 

"  Precisely,"  put  in  David,  "  that  particu 
lar  ignominy  is  reserved  for  me.  But  suppose 
she  doesn't  accept  you." 

"That's  hardly  worth  supposing.  It's  as 
good  as  understood  between  us,  I  think,  that 
she  will  accept  me." 

"  But  then  suppose  she  jilts  you,  after  you 
disclose  to  her  that  you  are  not  plain  Mr. 
Linkhaw." 

"  If  that's  well  managed,  I'm  not  afraid  of 
it,  either.  You  see,  her  father's  not  an  out- 
and-out  American.  He  was  really  born  in 


March  Hares.  203 

England,  and  went  out  there  as  a  boy.    That's 
a  very  curious  thing,  you  know.     Englishmen  N 
who  go  there,  and  like  the  place,  get  to  be 
more  American  than  the  Yankees  are  them 
selves.     But  they  don't  change  their  blood,  do 
they?    And  women  are   pretty  much  alike,  *' 
too,  whatever  their  blood  may  be.     They're  all 
organised  to  stand  a  coronet  on  the  corner  of 
their  pocket  handkerchiefs.     No,  it'll  be  all 
right,  if  only  you  stay  by  me." 

"  Ah,  now  we  come  to  realities,"  said  Moss- 
crop,  genially.  "  It'll  be  rather  an  expensive 
business,  Archie.  I  have  very  high  notions, 
iny  friend,  as  to  the  scale  on  which  an  Earl 
should  comport  himself.  I  could  not  dream 
of  doing  the  thing  on  the  thrifty  and  con 
tracted  basis  which  suits  you.  The  task  is  a 
difficult  one  to  me.  I  shall  have  to  sit  and 
look  entirely  devoid  of  mental  sensations  of 
any  sort  for  hours  at  a  time.  I  know  nothing 
of  football  and  cricket,  and  have  not  the  name 
of  a  single  jockey  on  my  tongue;  this  will 
render  conversation  an  embarrassing  matter 

for  me.     I  shall  suffer  continually  from  the 
14 


204  March  Hares. 

knowledge  that  I  am  being  regarded  as  a 
vicious  fool,  a  rake,  a  gambler,  and  libertine  of 
the  most  heartless  description,  and  this  will 
wear  a  good  deal  on  my  nerves.  Compensa 
tion  of  some  sort  I  must  have.  Now,  I  enter 
tain  the  theory  that  a  nobleman  should  never 
have  any  small  change  about  him  at  all.  Tips 
to  waiters  I  would  make  a  great  point  of. 
They  should  invariably  be  of  gold.  To  slip  a 
sovereign  into  a  hall-porter's  hand  is  also  a 
valuable  action.  His  subsequent  demeanour 
gives  the  cue  to  the  attitude  of  the  whole 
visible  world  toward  you.  A  four-in-hand  to 
Brighton  is  good  substantial  form,  too,  if 
enough  pains  be  taken  with  the  outfit.  A 
private  hansom  in  town  is,  of  course,  indis 
pensable.  I  realise,  Archie,"  he  concluded' 
apologetically,  "  that  I  am  not  displaying  a 
specially  comprehensive  grasp  of  the  require 
ments  of  rank.  I  can  only  think  of  a  few 
things  now,  on  the  spur  of  the  moment ;  but  I 
will  concentrate  all  my  energies  on  the  task 
once  I  take  it  up  in  earnest.  You  may  trust 
me  to  rise  to  the  occasion.  I  will  be  a  noble- 


Ma/rch  Ha/res.  205 

man  that  mere  baronets  will  turn  round  in  the 
street  to  look  after." 

Drumpipes  exhibited  a  wan  and  troubled 
smile.  "  You'd  have  your  joke,  Davie,  out  of 
any  man's  distress,"  he  said,  weakly. 

"  Joke ! "  cried  Mosscrop.  "  You  make  a 
woful  error  there,  Archie.  Never  was  man 
more  serious." 

"  But  there'd  be  no  opportunity  for  you  to 
spend  money,  or  display  yourself,"  urged  the 
other.  "  Not,  of  course,  that  I  would  be 
grudge  a  pound  or  two,  more  or  less,  if  there 
were  a  real  need  of  it.  But  in  this  case,  the 
whole  point  is  that  you  should  lie  low,  and  not 
be  seen  any  more.  There  is  no  necessity  that 
she  should  meet  you  again.  In  fact,  the  more 
I  think  of  it,  the  clearer  it  is  that  she  shouldn't. 
It  might  spoil  everything,  don't  you  see  ?  " 

"  Oh  no,  my  lad  !  "  rejoined  David,  cheer 
fully.  "  I'm  not  of  the  hermit  variety  of 
aristocrat.  I'm  the  kind  of  Earl  who's  on  the 
spot,  and  who  lets  people  know  that  he  is 
present.  I  will  have  rings  on  my  fingers  and 
bells  on  my  toes.  I  will— why,  let  me  see ! " 


206  March  Hares. 

His  face  brightened  at  some  wandering 
thought.  "Why,  man,  I  have  a  birthday  in 
six  days'  time !  That's  it,  the  24th.  I  knew 
there  was  the  difference  of  a  year  lacking  a 
week  between  us.  She  read  it  to  me  this  morn 
ing  out  of  the  peerage — August  24th.  Very 
well,  then,  I  will  celebrate  the  anniversary  as 
it  has  never  been  celebrated  before.  I  will 
provide  an  entertainment  for  my  immediate 
friends  upon  a  scale  befitting  my  position  and 
the  importance  of  the  event  commemorated. 
What  do  you  think  of  a  special  saloon-carriage 
to  Portsmouth,  and  a  dinner  on  my  yacht,  eh? 
One  could  be  hired  and  manned  for  the  occa 
sion,  and  a  staff  of  cooks  and  servants  sent 
down  from  an  hotel  here.  Or  could  you  get 
them  in  Portsmouth?  Does  anything  more 
appropriate  occur  to  you  ?  " 

"  Go  on  with  your  jest,"  replied  the  other, 
sullenly.  "All  I  can  say  is,  it's  in  damned 
bad  taste,  though.  Here  I  am  in  this  predica 
ment,  and  you  pour  vinegar  into  my  wounds 
instead  of  oil." 

"  Standard  Oil,  I  assume  that  you  refer  to. 


March  Hares.  207 

No,  you  shall  have  the  oil,  Archie.  You  shall 
be  my  guest  on  the  occasion,  and  you  shall 
meet  Mr.  and  Miss  Skinner.  We  four  will 
constitute  the  party ;  and  I  will  provide  such 
an  engaging  spectacle  of  the  nobleman,  the 
bearer  of  hereditary  dignities  and  titles,  seen 
close  at  hand  among  his  intimate  friends,  that 
the  lady  will  be  moved  to  admiration.  She 
will  say, c  Ah,  I  never  guessed  before  how  de 
lightful  an  Earl  could  be,  how  perfect  in  man 
ners,  how  admirable  in  tact,  how  superb  in  his 
capacity  as  host.'  I  will  reconcile  her  to  the 
aristocracy  en  bloc" 

"  Say,  you  know,"  interposed  Drumpipes, 
"  I'm  not  sure  there  isn't  something  in  that." 

"  Something  in  it  ?  My  dear  sir,  it's 
rammed  with  fructifying  probabilities.  I  give 
this  party,  and  I  do  it  as  an  Earl  should  do 
things.  I  exert  myself  to  fascinate  this  trans- 
Atlantic  twain.  I  lead  their  imaginations 
captive  to  my  hereditary  seductiveness.  I 
make  them  feel  that  to  be  the  guests  of  an 
Earl  is  more  than  beauty  and  fine  raiment 
and  Standard  Oil.  I  excite  them  to  a  warm 


208  March  Hares. 

glow  of  tenderness  toward  feudalism,  a  mood 
that  melts  at  mere  thought  of  the  mediaeval. 
At  that  psychological  moment  you  jump  in 
and  intimate  that  you're  something  of  an  Earl 
yourself — and  there  you  are ! " 

Drumpipes  nodded  approving  comprehen 
sion,  while  he  pondered  the  project  thus  out 
lined.  "  I'm  not  sure  I  don't  like  the  scheme," 
he  repeated.  "  It's  risky,  though.  She's  fear 
fully  keen  of  scent,  that  girl  is.  If  you  didn't 
play  it  for  all  you  were  worth,  every  minute, 
she'd  twig  the  thing  like  a  shot.  You'd  leave 
her  with  me  a  good  deal,  wouldn't  you,  and 
devote  yourself  to  the  old  man  ?  That  would 
be  the  safest,  you  know." 

"  That  would  hardly  do.  It  wouldn't  be 
in  character.  When  an  Earl  is  giving  a  party, 
and  there  is  a  beautiful  young  woman  about, 
he  doesn't  go  and  talk  with  windy  old  fossils 
in  frock-coats.  It  would  look  unnatural.  It 
might  as  like  as  not  excite  suspicion.  And 
now  you'd  better  clear  out.  I  want  to  go  to 
bed." 

The  Earl  rose,  stood  irresolute  for  a  mo- 


March  Hares.  209 

ment,  and  then  put  a  hand  on  Mosscrop's 
shoulder.  "  Davie,"  he  said  gravely,  "  there's 
one  thing  you  must  remember.  You're  not  a 
good  man  to  handle  money — if  I  didn't  know 
your  forbears,  I'd  never  credit  your  being  a 
Scot  at  all — remember,  laddie,  that  those  law 
yers  have  run  up  terrible  bills  against  me, 
and  farm  values  have  all  dropped  in  the  most 
fearful  fashion,  and  I've  not  kept  so  tight  a 
hand  on  the  purse-strings  of  late,  myself,  as 
usual,  and  so  do  this  thing  as  moderately " 

"  Oh,  you  be  damned  !  "  laughed  Mosscrop, 
and  pushed  him  from  the  room. 

When  he  was  alone,  the  notion  of  going 
to  bed  seemed  to  have  lost  its  urgency.  He 
lighted  his  pipe,  and  sat  down  to  read  Vesta- 
lia's  letter  once  again. 


CHAPTER  X. 

AT  breakfast,  three  mornings  later,  Mr. 
Laban  Skinner  and  his  daughter  dallied  over 
their  plates,  and  sent  the  waiter  out  again 
with  some  asperity  when  he,  taking  it  for 
granted  they  must  have  finished  the  meal, 
came  in  to  clear  the  table. 

Each  had  been  reading  a  letter,  from  the 
early  morning  mail. 

"  It  is  an  invitation  from  the  Earl  of 
Drumpipes,"  remarked  the  father,  regarding 
his  daughter  over  his  pince-nez,  "  expressing, 
in  what  I  am  constrained  to  describe  as  some 
what  abrupt  and  common-place  terms,  his  de 
sire  that  we  should  consider  ourselves  as  his 
guests  during  the  entire  day  upon  the  ap 
proaching  24th  instant,  the  occasion  being  the 

anniversary  of  his  birth."    He   handed  over 
210 


Mar  cli  Hares.  211 

the  note  for  her  inspection  as  he  spoke. 
"  The  impression  which  his  phraseology  pro 
duces  upon  me,"  he  added,  "is  that  of  one 
performing  a  perfunctory  act  of  courtesy  to 
foreigners  of  his  acquaintance,  to  whom  he 
extends  the  ceremonial  proffer  of  a  hospitality 
which  he  assumes  will  be  declined." 

"  Oh,  not  at  all,  papa,"  commented  Adele, 
briefiy  glancing  at  the  note.  "  All  noblemen 
write  in  that  formal  way.  It  is  a  part  of 
their  bringing-up.  No ;  he  wants  us  to  come, 
right  enough.  I  have  a  letter  here  from  Mr. 
Linkhaw,  explaining  the  thing.  Of  course  it 
was  a  suggestion  of  his." 

"  I  venture  the  hope,"  said  Mr.  Skinner, 
"  that  he  improves  the  opportunity  to  also  ex 
plain  the  otherwise  unintelligible  fact  that 
during  an  entire  week  we  have  had  neither 
ocular  evidence  nor  any  other  tangible  mani 
festation  of  his  presence  upon  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  avow  my  sur 
prise  at  what,  after  his  manifold  and,  I  might 
say,  even  importunate  professions  of  eagerness 
to  place  his  services  at  our  disposal  in  London, 


212  March  Ifares. 

I  find  myself  unable  to  refrain  from  regarding 
as  his  indifference  to  our — our  being  here." 

"No,"  said  Adele,  confidently,  "it's  all 
right.  He  was  kept  longer  in  Scotland  than 
he  expected — very  urgent  family  business  of 
some  sort — and  only  arrived  in  London  a 
couple  of  days  ago,  and  has  been  up  to  his  eyes 
in  work  since  he  came.  Besides,"  she  contin 
ued  with  a  little  smile,  "  he  is  very  frank ;  he 
says  he  has  no  clothes  fit  to  go  about  in  Lon 
don  with,  but  his  tailor  is  working  at  some 
new  ones  for  him  day  and  night,  and  they  are 
promised  for  the  23d,  so  that  at  the  birthday 

party  next  day " 

"  I  am  far  from  presuming,  Adele,"  inter 
rupted  the  father,  gravely,  "  to  ascribe  to  you 
a  deficiency  or  obtuseness  of  perception  where 
considerations  of  delicacy  are  involved ;  but  I 
think  I  am  warranted  in  pointing  out  that  at 
home,  at  least  in  the  social  environment  to 
which  you  have  been  from  your  infancy  accus 
tomed,  a  young  gentleman  would  intuitively 
eschew  a  subject  of  this  nature  in  his  corre 
spondence  with  a  young  lady." 


Mcurch  Ha/res.  213 


"  Oh,  they're  different  here,"  explained  the 
daughter,  with  nonchalance.  "  They  talk 
quite  openly  over  here  of  lots  of  things  which 
we  never  dream  of  mentioning.  You  remem 
ber  that  lady  in  front  of  us  at  the  theatre  last 
night — when  the  men  in  their  dress  suits  came 
over  to  talk  with  her  between  the  acts — how 
she  told  them  right  out,  that  although  it  was 
so  hot  she  had  to  fan  herself  all  the  while,  still 
her  legs  felt  quite  shivery.  Now,  a  speech  like 
that  would  stand  Louisville  on  its  head,  let 
alone  Paris,  Kentucky,  but  here  it  passes  with 
out  the  slightest  notice.  It's  the  custom  of 
the  country.  I  rather  like  it  myself." 

Mr.  Skinner  sighed,  and  pecked  timorously 
at  his  egg  with  a  spoon.  "  I  am  not  wanting, 
I  trust,  in  tolerance  for  the  natural  divergences 
of  habit  and  manner  which  distinguish  the 
widely-separated  branches  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  or  in  a  desire  to  accommodate  myself  to 
their  peculiarities  when  I  confront  them  in  the 
course  of  foreign  travel ;  but  I  with  difficulty 
bring  myself  to  contemplate  with  satisfaction 
the  method  of  partaking  of  a  soft-boiled  egg 


214  March  Hares. 

which  obtains  favour  in  these  islands.  To  my 
mind,  the  negation  of  the  principle  of  a  centre 
of  gravity  involved  in  the  construction  of  this 
egg  cup,  combined  with  the  objectionably  in 
adequate  dimensions  of  the  spoon " 

"  Dig  it  out  on  to  your  plate,  then ;  the 
waiter  won't  come  in  again  till  I  ring,"  sug 
gested  the  daughter. 

"  I  prefer  the  alternative  of  abstention,"  he 
answered.  "  The  spectacle  of  stains  upon  the 
cloth  or  upon  the  plate  would  be  equally  sug 
gestive  to  the  servant's  scrutiny." 

He  rose  as  he  spoke.  Adele,  gathering  up 
the  letters,  did  likewise,  and  rang  the  bell. 

Mr.  Skinner,  having  glanced  out  at  the 
river  panorama  from  the  balcony  window  for 
a  little,  and  then  looked  over  the  market 
columns  of  a  newspaper,  turned  again  to  his 
daughter. 

"  I  gather  that  we  are  to  accept  the  invita 
tion  of  the  Earl  of  Drumpipes,"  he  remarked, 
tentatively. 

Adele  nodded.  "  TVhy,  of  course,"  she 
said ;  "  that's  to  be  the  formal  beginning  of 


Ma/rch  Hares.  215 

everything.  It  is  intended  to  make  our  posi 
tion  here  perfectly  regular.  Lord  Drumpipes 
is  the  head  of  Mr.  Linkhaw's  family.  It  is 
entirely  becoming  that  he  should  take  the 
initiative  in  recognising  us." 

"  Ah  yes,  in  recognising  us,"  he  repeated. 
"  I  suppose,  Adele,  it  would  be  futile  for  me 
to  recur  to  the  question  whether  you  have 
sufficiently  weighed  the  opposing  considera 
tions  with  regard  to  Mr.  Linkhaw,  and 
the " 

"  Mercy,  yes  ! "  interposed  Adele,  with 
promptitude.  "  Don't  let's  have  that  all  over 
again.  I've  quite  settled  everything  in  my 
own  mind." 

"  Since  I  was  afforded  the  opportunity  of 
personally  observing  and  conversing  with  the 
Earl  of  Drumpipes,"  pursued  the  father,  "  and 
of  thus  forming  authoritative  conclusions  as  to 
the  British  nobility  in  general,  I  have  devoted 
much  thought  to  the  subject.  While  I  do  not 
suggest  that  my  well-known  views  upon  the 
aristocratic  institution,  as  a  whole,  have  under 
gone  any  perceptible  transformation,  I  do  not 


216  Ma/rch 


shrink  from  the  admission  that  the  thought 
of  being  connected  by  marriage  with  the  bearer 
of  an  hereditary  title  no  longer  presents  itself 
to  me  in  such  repulsive  colours  as  was  former 
ly  the  case.  If,  therefore,  with  your  undoubted 
advantages,  it  should  occur  to  you  to  entertain 
the  idea  of  a  possible  alliance  with  the  nobil 
ity,  I  would  not  have  you  feel  that  my  convic 
tions  formed  a  necessarily  insuperable  barrier 

"  No,  no  !  "  the  daughter  broke  in,  with  a 
laugh.  "I'll  promise  to  disregard  your  con 
victions  as  much  as  you  like.  But  now  I  want 
you  to  go  out,  and  kill  time  by  yourself  some 
where  till  luncheon.  I  want  to  be  left  alone. 
There  is  some  place  where  elderly  American 
gentlemen  can  go,  isn't  there,  without  getting 
into  mischief  ?  Oh  yes,  you  must  go,  and  not 
just  downstairs  to  hang  about  the  hotel  en 
trance,  but  straight  away  somewhere.  Why  ? 
My  dear  papa,  I  have  my  secrets  as  well  as 
you." 

"But  that  secret  of  mine,"  he  protested 
feebly,  "  I  assure  you,  Adele,  that  it  is  really 


March  Hares. 


nothing  at  all.  That  is,  it  does  involve  mat 
ters  both  interesting  and  important  ;  but  the 
fact  that  I  am  precluded  from  mentioning 
them  is  in  the  nature  of  a  pure  accident,  and 
wholly  without  significance." 

"  Good-bye  till  luncheon  time,"  answered 
Adele,  with  affable  firmness.  "  And  mind  you 
quit  the  premises." 

Mr.  Skinner  found  his  hat,  smiled  dubi 
ously  at  his  daughter,  and  without  further 
parley  took  himself  off. 

Adele,  left  alone,  looked  at  the  watch  in 
her  girdle,  and  compared  its  record  with  that 
of  the  ornate  clock  on  the  mantel.  She  took 
up  the  paper  and  ran  an  aimless  eye  over  one 
page  after  another.  Then  she  walked  about 
with  a  restless  movement,  pausing  from  time 
to  time  to  bend  a  frowning  yet  indifferent  in 
spection  upon  the  scene  spread  out  beyond  the 
balcony. 

At  last  there  came  a  tap  on  the  door,  and 
at  sound  of  this,  even  as  she  called  out  a 
clear,  commanding  "  Come  !  "  she  withdrew 
all  signs  of  perturbation,  or  of  emotion  of 


218  Mwrch  Hcvres. 

any  sort,  from  her  beautiful  dark  counte 
nance. 

It  was  Vestalia  who  entered  the  room — 
Vestalia,  clad  in  daintily  unpretentious  and 
becoming  garments,  neatly  gloved,  and  with 
much  radiant  self-possession  upon  her  pretty 
face.  She  paused  upon  the  threshold,  nodded 
rather  than  bowed  to  her  hostess,  and  let  a 
little  smile  sparkle  in  her  eyes  and  play  about 
her  rosebud  of  a  mouth. 

"  Your  father  does  not  succeed  very  well  in 
keeping  his  secrets,  I  observe,"  she  remarked, 
pleasantly,  by  way  of  an  overture  to  conversa 
tion. 

"  "Won't  you  please  to  be  seated,"  said 
Adele,  with  exaggerated  calmness.  She  her 
self  took  a  chair,  and  slowly  surveyed  her  vis 
itor  as  she  went  on :  "  My  father  has  no  se 
crets  from  me.  He  tries  to  have — once  in  a 
blue  moon — but  it  doesn't  come  off.  I  may 
tell  you  frankly,  however,  that  he  has  in  this 
case  told  me  nothing.  I  found  your  address, 
and  other  information,  in  looking  through  his 
pockets.  I  am  under  no  obligation  to  tell  you 


March  Hares.  219 

this :  I  simply  feel  like  it,  that's  all.  I  hate 
dissimulation." 

"  And  I  suppose  you  have  your  things  made 
up  without  pockets,"  suggested  Yestalia,  ami 
ably. 

Adele  put  some  added  resolution  into  her 
glance.  "  I  wrote  asking  you  to  call,"  she 
said  coldly,  "because  it  became  a  nuisance 
not  to  know  what  you  were  up  to." 

"  Ah,"  replied  Vestalia,  "  it  looks  as  if  your 
father  must  have  destroyed  some  of  our  cor 
respondence.  How  thoughtless  of  him ! " 

Miss  Skinner  paused,  and  knitted  her 
queenly  brows  a  trifle.  She  did  not  seem  to 
be  getting  on.  "  I  have  no  wish  to  waste 
time  in  trying  to  be  funny,"  she  avowed,  after 
some  hesitation.  "Now  that  you  are  here, 
have  you  any  objection  to  telling  me  why  you 
swore  my  father  to  keep  a  secret  from  me  ?  " 

"  Oh,  just  a  whim  of  mine,  nothing  more," 
Vestalia  assured  her,  lightly.  "I  frequently 
have  notions  like  that,  that  I  can't  in  the  least 
account  for." 

"  No,  you  had  a  reason,"  insisted  the  other, 
15 


220  March  Ha/res. 


with  gravity.  "  And  you  must  tell  me  what  it 
was.  I  have  been  frank  with  you." 

"And  I  will  not  be  behind  you  in  can 
dour,"  said  Vestalia,  as  if  won  by  an  appeal  to 
her  better  self.  "It  was  because  you  looked 
at  me  in  the  Museum  as  if  you  thought  my 
hair  was  dyed." 

"  Well,  so  it  is,  isn't  it  ?  "  demanded  Adele, 
bluntly. 

"  Upon  my  honour,  no  ! "  the  other  replied. 
"  And  now  you  look  at  me  as  if  you  thought 
that  that  wasn't  much  to  'swear  by.  It's  pos 
sible  that  you  do  not  realise  it,  but  your  eyes 
leave  something  to  be  desired  in  the  matter  of 
politeness." 

"I'm  afraid  that's  true,"  Adele  assented. 
"  I  have  an  effect  of  looking  very  hard  at 
things,  simply  because  I'm  near-sighted.  I 
ought  to  wear  glasses,  but  they  do  not  suit 
me." 

"Yes,"  said  Vestalia,  with  a  meditative 
look,  "  it  would  be  a  pity  for  you  to  put  them 
on.  They  would  detract  from  your  face.  It 
is  very  beautiful  as  it  is — for  a  dark  style." 


Mwrch  Hcvres.  221 

"  Sometimes  I  feel  that  I  am  almost  tired 
of  being  dark/'  confessed  Adele.  "  Your  hair 
is  the  most  wonderful  thing  I  ever  saw.  I 
could  see  that  your  gentleman-friend  at  the 
Museum  admired  it  immensely." 

"Oh  yes,  he  said  so  repeatedly,"  Vestalia 
replied,  with  a  demure  display  of  pleasure  at 
the  recollection. 

Again  there  was  a  little  pause.  Then  Miss 
Skinner  essayed  another  opening.  "  Your 
name — Peaussier — would  indicate  French  ex 
traction,"  she  remarked.  "  And  French  people 
are  so  very  dark,  as  a  rule,  aren't  they  ?  My 
mother  was  a  Creole — from  Louisiana,  you 
know — and  I  suppose  that  accounts  for  my 
colour." 

"  "Well,  my  mother  was  Scotch,"  explained 
Vestalia,  "  and  they  are  sandy." 

"The  Scotch  gentleman  that  you  were 
with  at  the  Museum — he  was  decidedly  a  dark 
man,"  suggested  Adele,  with  a  casual  man 
ner. 

"  Now  that  I  think  of  it,  so  he  was,"  said 
Vestalia. 


222  March  Ha/res. 

The  measured  and  ceremonious  ticking  of 
the  expensive  clock  on  the  mantel  had  the  si 
lence  to  itself  for  a  space,  while  the  two  ladies 
looked  at  each  other. 

"  So  you  won't  tell  me  anything  ?  "  Miss 
Skinner  exclaimed  at  last. 

"  The  trouble  is,  don't  you  see,  that  I  am 
quite  in  the  dark  as  to  what  you  want  to 
know.  If  you  will  tell  me  just  what  was  in 
your  father's  pockets,  I  can  judge  then  what 
gaps  exist  in  your  information." 

Adele  laughed  aloud.  "  I  believe  you  are 
really  a  tip-top  good  fellow,  in  spite  of  every 
thing,"  she  declared.  "  Do  tell  me  what  it  is 
you  are  doing!  I  assure  you  you're  utterly 
wrong  in  thinking  that  I  am  a  person  to  guard 
against,  to  keep  secrets  from.  Come,  don't 
you  see  how  much  I  really  like  you?  And 
you  won't  trust  me !  I  suppose  it  is  the 
blonde  temperament,  suspicious  and  unrespon 
sive  and  calculating.  Or  no,  I  don't  mean 
that,  you  know  I  don't,  but  you  might  repose 
more  confidence  in  me,  when  I  have  told  you 
everything." 


March  Hares.  223 

"  Everything  ?  "  murmured  Vestalia, 
sweetly. 

"  About  papa's  pockets,  you  know." 

"Ah,  yes." 

"  It  was  all  your  fault,"  urged  Adele.  "  It 
was  you  who  drove  me  to  it.  And  if  you  don't 
tell  now,  goodness  only  knows  what  crimes  I 
may  not  be  driven  to  commit,  in  addition." 

"  Let  me  hasten  to  avert  this  woful  catas 
trophe,"  cried  Vestalia.  "  The  matter  is  sim 
plicity  itself.  I  am  by  profession,  trade, 
whatever  you  call  it,  a  tracer  of  pedigrees, 
genealogies.  I  served  my  apprenticeship  un 
der  an  American  lady,  who  worked  entirely 
for  American  customers.  She  is  dead  now, 
and  the  business  is  broken  up,  and  I  have 
been  idle  for  a  long  time.  When  I  saw  your 
father  and  heard  his  name,  a  thought  occurred 
to  me.  I  know  a  good  deal  about  the  Skin 
ners  in  England." 

"  Papa  was  born  in  England  himself,  you 
know,"  interposed  Adele,  with  rising  interest. 

"  Yes,  I  know,"  Vestalia  went  on.  "  As  I 
said,  I  have  exceptional  sources  of  information 


224  March  Hares. 

about  the  family,  and  it  occurred  to  me  that 
very  likely  he  would  be  glad  to  have  the  records 
searched,  and  a  full  pedigree  drawn  up.  I 
wrote  to  him,  accordingly — he  had  mentioned 
this  hotel — and  I  came  and  saw  him  downstairs 
in  the  reception-room,  and  he  seemed  delighted 
with  the  idea,  and  gave  me  a  commission  at 
once.  What  was  more  important  still,  he  was 
kind  enough  to  pay  me  something  in  advance. 
It  came  just  at  the  moment  to — to  supply  a 
very  urgent  want,  too,  I  can  tell  you." 

"  Ah,  poor  girl ! "  said  Adele,  tenderly. 
"  But  why  on  earth  were  you  afraid  that  1 
should  know  ?  I  don't  believe  your  story  about 
the  hair,  you  know." 

"  Eeally  it  was  that,"  protested  Vestalia. 
"  I  could  see  that  you  didn't  like  me.  I  was 
afraid  of  you — that  is,  of  your  prejudicing 
your  father  against  me.  And  if  you  only  knew 
how  desperately  I  was  in  need  of  the  job ! 
Don't  you  remember,  you  did  look  very  sharply 
at  me." 

"  If  I  did,  it  was  because  I  was  surprised  to 
— to — see  who  you  were  with." 


March  Ha/res.  225 

"How  do  you  mean?"  queried  Vestalia, 
puzzled.  "  We  were  both  entire  strangers  to 
you,  surely." 

"  No.  I  recognised  the  gentleman  from  a 
picture  I  had  seen  of  him.  I  had  a  kind  of 
idea  that  he  was  not  precisely  a  nice  gentleman 
for  you  to  be  with." 

"  Then  you  had  a  preposterous  and  wickedly 
mistaken  kind  of  idea,"  said  Vestalia,  with  de 
cision.  "  There  isn't  a  truer  or  nobler-spirited 
gentleman  on  this  earth  than  he  is.  I  have 
reason  to  know  what  I  say.  If  anybody  has 
told  you  otherwise,  you  have  been  lied  to,  that's 
all." 

"  Dear,  dear,  how  much  you  are  in  earnest," 
cried  Adele.  "  You  must  be  my  friend,  and 
defend  me  behind  my  back  like  that,  too.  If 
he  liked  your  hair  immensely,  why,  so  do  I." 

"  Don't  let  us  joke  about  him,"  put  in  Ves 
talia,  with  seriousness.  "I  feel  very  keenly 
about  my  obligation  to  him.  He  saved  my 
life — and — and  I'd  rather  talk  about  something 
else.  We  were  speaking  of  the  Skinners— and 
their  pedigree." 


226  March  Ha/res. 

Adele  assented,  with,  an  inclination  of  the 
head,  to  the  diversion,  though  her  eyes  retained 
their  gleam  of  surprised  curiosity.  "  Yes,  the 
Skinners,"  she  said,  vaguely. 

"I  can  trace  them  up  to  Sir  Theobald 
Skinner,  Knight,  who  obtained  a  grant  of  the 
Abbey  lands  of  Coggesthorpe,  Suffolk,  in  1541 
— who  in  turn  was  the  grandfather  of  Walter 
Skinner,  who  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  and 
co-heir  of  John  Banstock,  Esquire,  of  Meechy, 
Norfolk,  and  became  first  Lord  Gunser." 

Adele  pricked  up  her  ears.  "What  is 
that?  Are  we  related  to  the  nobility?  Oh, 
that  is  what  papa  meant  by  something  interest 
ing  and  important !  Who  would  have  supposed 
he  could  be  so  sly?  Oh,  sure  enough,  that 

would  account  for "  She  broke  off  short, 

and  smiled,  first  knowingly  to  herself,  then 
with  frank  cordiality  to  Vestalia.  "  Oh,  go 
on,"  she  urged.  "  Tell  me  about  our  lords." 

Yestalia  shook  her  head.  "  We — that  is, 
you  have  no  lords  nowadays,"  she  admitted, 
ruefully.  "The  Gunser  peerage  became  ex 
tinct  in  the  male  line  nearly  two  hundred  years 


March  Hares.  227 

ago.  The  collateral  branches  of  the  family 
sank  to  be  yeomen  on  the  soil  their  ancestors 
had  owned — some  of  them  became  even  peas 
ants,  agricultural  labourers.  There  are  no 
prosperous  or  polite  Skinners  nowadays — ex 
cept  your  immediate  branch." 

"And  even  I  haven't  got  polite  eyes," 
laughed  Adele.  "  Yes,  I  remember  papa  tell 
ing  how  poor  his  people  were.  He  hardly 
knew  the  taste  of  meat,  he  said,  till  he  went  to 
America  as  a  boy.  And  so  you  have  traced  all 
his  relations  out.  Are  there  any  cousins  or 
near  connections  living  now,  do  you  know? 
He  had  a  brother  older  than  himself,  Abram 
was  his  name,  I  fancy,  and  he  enlisted  in  the 
army  and  went  to  the  dogs,  I  think.  At 
least,  father  never  heard  of  him  after 
ward." 

"  He  is  dead,"  Vestalia  re-assured  her. 
"  He  did  go  to  the  dogs,  as  you  say.  He  had 
some  sons,  but  they  are  dead  too." 

"And  so  there  were  actually  Skinners  in 
the  peerage!"  mused  Adele,  aloud.  The 
thought  seemed  to  excite  her.  She  rose  and 


228  March  Hares. 

looked  at  herself  in  the  mirror,  over  Vestalia's 
head.  The  latter  stood  up  as  well. 

"Oh,  must  you  be  going?"  said  Adele. 
"  There  was  so  much  I  wanted  to  say  to  you. 
We  must  meet  soon  again.  I  am  going  to  in 
sist  upon  that.  You  see,  I  know  absolutely 
no  one  over  here  of  my  own  sex,  except  you. 
It  will  be  different  in  a  few  days,  now,  but 
that  won't  make  any  difference  with  my  liking 
you.  Oh,  yes — I  wanted  to  ask  you — do  you 
know  a  Mr.  Linkhaw  ?  " 

Vestalia  looked  blankly  at  her  interrogator 
for  a  moment,  then  flushed  a  little  and  smiled 
confusedly.  "  I  have  heard  the  name,"  she 
replied,  "  but  I  have  never  seen  the  gentleman 
bearing  it." 

Adele  drew  her  brows  together  in  a  half- 
frown.  "  He  is  a  great  friend  of  the  gentle 
man  who  was  with  you  at  the  Museum,"  she 
said,  doubtingly. 

"  Yes,  I  gathered  that,"  answered  Vestalia. 
"  It  was  in  that  way  that  I  heard  the  name." 

"  Eeally,  how  curiously  we  two  are  mixed 
up  together ! "  cried  the  other,  with  dawning 


March  Hares.  229 

impatience.  "  You  could  tell  me  ever  so  many 
things  that  I  am  dying  to  know,  if  you  only 
chose  to.  It  is  provoking  to  have  to  grope 
about  in  the  dark  like  this.  And  you  won't 
even  get  vexed  with  me,  and  talk  back.  Even 
that  way  I  might  learn  something — and  we 
could  make  it  up  afterward,  as  easy  as  not." 

"Ah,  but  that  is  what  I  came  resolved 
under  no  circumstances  to  do,"  explained  Yes- 
talia,  with  affable  placidity.  "  Nothing  would 
tempt  me  to  get  vexed  with  you." 

"  Suppose  I  insisted  upon  talking  unpleas 
antly  about  the  gentleman  at  the  Museum," 
suggested  Adele,  with  potential  malice  in  her 
tone. 

"  I  don't  say  you  can't  grieve  me  and  hurt 
me,  but  you  can't  make  me  angry  with  you. 
You  see,  I  know  things  which  you  don't  know, 
which  would  entirely  alter  your  views  about 
me,  and  about  other  matters,  if  you  were  aware 
of  them.  So  it  would  be  unfair  in  me  to 
blame  you  for  remarks  made  in  ignorance  of 
the  truth." 

"  But  it  is  precisely  against  this  ignorance 


230  March  Hares. 

that  I  protest  with  all  my  might !  "  said  Adele 
with  vehemence.  "It  is  that  that  is  unfair. 
It  makes  me  ridiculous." 

"  I  don't  see  the  sense  of  it  myself,"  agreed 
Vestalia,  simply.  "  I  always  thought  it  would 
be  the  simplest  course  to  tell  you  everything 
at  once.  Or  no — what  have  I  said  ?  "  she  has 
tened  to  add,  in  deprecation  of  the  other's 
kindling  eye ;  "  I  didn't  feel  that  way  at  first. 
It  was  I  who  originally  suggested  that  you 
shouldn't  be  told,  at  the  start.  I  was  afraid 
of  you,  you  know.  But  now  I  feel  quite  dif 
ferently.  I  would  gladly  have  you  know 
everything — but  your  father  has  other  views. 
It  is  his  secret,  now,  much  more  than  it  is 
mine.  I  don't  think  there  is  any  reason  why 
I  shouldn't  tell  you  that  much." 

"  Oh-h ! "  groaned  Adele,  in  wrath  at  her 
helplessness.  "  Well,  tell  me  this,  anyway, 
how  long  is  this  tomfoolery  to  be  kept 
up?" 

"  No,  don't  ask  me,"  answered  Vestalia, 
sympathetically  at  last.  "  I  don't  know.  I 
can  only  say  that  I'm  as  tired  of  it  now  as  you 


Mar cli  Hcvres.  231 

are.  I  wish  you  would  believe  that.  It  would 
make  me  easier  in  my  mind." 

"  Well,  I  do  believe  it,  then,"  the  dark  girl 
replied,  with  impulsive  readiness.  "  Oh,  and 
something  occurs  to  me  that  I  daresay  you 
can  tell  me.  You  remember  the  day  at  the 
Museum.  Well,  the  gentleman  who  was  with 
you  called  here  next  day,  papa  having  in  the 
meantime  seen  you  secretly,  downstairs.  Now, 
papa  seemed  clearly  annoyed  with  that  gentle 
man,  when  he  came  up  and  found  him  here. 
Now,  why  was  that  ?  " 

Vestalia  reflected.  It  was  evident  enough 
that  the  question  honestly  puzzled  her.  "  All 
I  can  think  of,"  she  replied,  after  considera 
tion,  "  is  that  your  father  had  taken  it  for 
granted  that  this  gentleman  was  my  husband 
— and  when  it  came  out  in  our  interview  that 
he  wasn't  then  your  father  questioned  me  very 
closely  about  him,  and  it  happened  that  it  was 
a  subject  upon  which  I  couldn't  very  well  tell 
him  much,  and  I  daresay  he  formed  an  unfa 
vourable  opinion  of  Mr.  Mosscrop  on  that  ac 
count.  That  is  the  only  explanation  I  can 


232  Marcli  Hares. 

think  of.  I  know  he  said  he  thought  it  would 
be  well  for  me  not  to  see  him  again,  or  even 
hold  communication  with  him — but  I  did 
write  him  a  letter  that  very  day  all  the  same." 

It  was  Adele's  turn  to  ponder.  "  But 
why,"  she  began,  hesitatingly,  "why  should 
papa  take  it  upon  himself  to  tell  you  what  to 
do  and  not  to  do  ?  What  business  is  it  of  his  ? 
And,  if  he  disliked  the  thing,  why  should  he 
remain  friendly  to  you,  and  snub  the  gentle 
man  you  call  Mr.  Mosscrop?  Not  that  he 
minded  it,  or  that  it  amounted  to  anything, 
but  it  puzzles  me  that  papa  should  behave  in 
that  curious  fashion." 

"  Yes,  it  would  have  been  more  natural  to 
show  the  woman  the  cold  shoulder,  and  think 
nothing  amiss  of  the  man,"  assented  Vestalia, 
gravely.  "  I  quite  agree  with  you  there." 

"  Well,  that  is  the  way  of  the  world,  isn't 
it  ?  "  put  in  Adele,  in  apologetic  tones.  "  Don't 
dream  that  I  suggest  anything  wrong." 

"  Oh  no,"  said  the  other  patiently,  but  with 
a  note  of  weariness  in  her  voice.  "  It  doesn't 
matter,  one  way  or  the  other." 


March  Hares.  233 

"You  love  him,  then?"  Adele's  black 
eyes  glowed  with  a  sudden  kindly  warmth 
which  went  to  Vestalia's  heart." 

"Oh,  how  can  I  tell  you?"  she  faltered. 
"It  is  all  so  stupid — and  I  am  so  unhappy? 
He  was  goodness  itself  to  me,  and  he  must 
think  that  I  behaved  like  a  brute — a  common 
girl  of  the  streets — or  meaner  still,  for  at  least 
it's  said  they  have  some  sense  of  gratitude. 
He  came  like  Providence  itself  to  help  me, 
when  I  was  absolutely  starving  and  turned  out 
of  doors  like  a  dog — and  I  was  grateful,  and 
yet  here  he  must  be  thinking  that  I'm  the 
very  scum  of  the  earth  ! " 

She  gazed  at  her  companion  out  of  swim 
ming  eyes,  and  for  answer  Adele  kissed  her. 

"  I  will  go  now,"  she  stammered,  hastily, 
as  if  the  caress  had  further  unnerved  her. 
"  I've  stayed  longer  than  I  meant.  Yes,  I  will 
come  again — if  you  tell  your  father  that  I've 
been,  and  he  says  I  may  come." 

"  I'd  like  to  see  him  say  anything  else ! " 
cried  the  young  lady  from  Paris,  Kentucky. 
"  The  idea ! " 


234  March  Hares. 

And  when  the  door  had  closed  upon 
Yestalia,  this  dark  beauty  clenched  her  hands, 
and  strode  indignantly  about  the  room,  and 
repeated  between  set  teeth,  "The  very 
idea ! " 


CHAPTER  XL 

VESTALIA  paused  at  the  street  entrance  of 
the  hotel,  and  looked  doubtfully  up  the  hill 
toward  the  shifting  outline  of  the  strident, 
crowded  Strand. 

The  prospect  repelled  her,  and  she  bent 
her  slow  steps  in  the  other  direction.  Cross 
ing  the  empty,  sun-baked  roadway  of  the  Em 
bankment,  she  strolled  westward  in  the  partial 
shade  of  the  young  lime-trees,  which  maintain 
a  temerarious  existence  along  the  line  of  the 
river's  parapet. 

She  looked  over  the  stonework  to  the  water 
from  time  to  time  as  she  walked,  and  every 
glance  instinctively  wandered  up-stream  to 
ward  the  stretch  of  Westminster  Bridge,  poised 
delicately  in  the  noonday  haze  across  the  body 
of  the  sleepy  flood.  The  stately  beauty  of  the 

16  235 


236  March  Ha/res. 


opposing  piles  of  buildings  which,  it  linked 
one  with  the  other,  and  brought  together  into 
the  loftiest  picture  the  Old  World  knows, 
came  as  she  moved  toward  it  to  soothe  and 
uplift  her  spirits.  Her  lips  parted  with  pleas 
ure  at  the  spectacle,  and  at  the  thought  that 
there,  in  that  glorious  span  between  St. 
Thomas'  and  St.  Stephen's,  her  own  romance 
had  been  born. 

The  warm  serenity  of  the  scene,  the  inim 
itable  composure  of  its  vast  parts,  lying  under 
the  sunshine  in  such  majestic  calm,  seemed  to 
chide  the  weak  flutterings  and  despondencies 
to  which  she  had  surrendered  her  bosom.  The 
romance  which  absorbed  her  mind,  of  which, 
indeed,  her  whole  being  had  become  a  portion, 
had  its  home  there,  in  the  heart  of  that  be 
nignant  grandeur.  The  grace  and  charm  and 
noble  strength  of  what  she  gazed  upon  re 
buked  her  timid  want  of  confidence  in  Des 
tiny,  as  it  shapes  itself  on  Westminster  Bridge. 
She  walked  forward  with  a  firmer  step,  her 
head  up,  and  her  eyes  drying  themselves  by 
the  radiance  of  their  own  glance. 


March  Hares.  237 

And  so,  being  borne  along  by  the  power 
ful  spell  which  this  great  vista  has  cast  about 
her,  she  had  no  sense  of  surprise  when  it 
caught  up  also  David  Mosscrop  in  its  train, 
and  placed  him  at  her  side.  It  was  at  the 
corner  of  the  bridge,  and  a  momentary  clus 
tering  of  pedestrians  brought  to  a  stand-still 
by  a  policeman's  uplifted  hand  had  diverted 
her  thoughts,  and  then  someone  touched  her 
on  the  arm. 

She  turned  and  drank  in  what  had  hap 
pened  with  tranquil,  tenderly  self-possessed 
eyes.  She  gave  no  start,  as  of  a  mind  caught 
unawares.  She  was  conscious  of  no  wonder, 
no  tremor  of  disturbance  at  the  unexpected. 
The  luminous  regard  in  which  she  embraced 
the  newcomer  was  as  unreasoningly  ready  for 
him  as  are  the  spontaneous  raptures  of  dream 
land.  No  words  came  to  her  lips,  but  it  was 
in  the  air  that  she  had  known  he  was  com 
ing. 

"  I  was  just  going  to  hunt  a  fellow  up  at 
his  club  across  there,"  said  Mosscrop,  his 
coarser  masculine  sense  suggesting  an  explana- 


238  March  Hares. 


tion,  "  and  I  chanced  to  look  over  here,  and  I 
made  sure  it  was  you,  and " 

He  stopped  short  too,  and  the  slower  fires 
kindled  in  the  glance  which  met  hers.  They 
looked  into  each  other's  eyes,  in  a  long  mo 
ment  of  silence.  He  drew  her  arm  in  his, 
while  the  glamour  of  this  sustained  gaze  rested 
still  upon  them.  Then,  with  a  lengthened 
happy  sigh  she  spoke. 

"I  want  to  go  again  to  that  dear  little 
place  where  we  breakfasted,"  she  said  softly. 
"  You  must  let  me  have  my  own  way.  I  have 
money  in  my  purse,  now,  and  you  must  come 
and  lunch  with  me.  And  it  must  be — oh,  it 
must  be  there." 

They  drove  thither,  this  time  in  a  high- 
hung,  sumptuous,  noiseless  hansom,  which 
sped  with  an  entranced  absence  of  motion 
through  the  busy  streets. 

"  It  is  like  fairyland  again,"  she  whispered, 
nestling  against  him  in  the  narrow,  deeply- 
padded  enclosure.  And  he,  resting  his  hand 
upon  hers  under  the  shelter  of  the 
closed  doors,  breathed  heavily,  and  mur- 


March  Hwres.  239 

mured  a  cadence  without  words  in  ecstatic 
response. 

In  some  ridiculous  fraction  of  time  they 
were  at  their  journey's  end.  The  impression 
of  having  travelled  on  a  magic  carpet  was  in 
their  minds  as,  almost  ruefully,  they  woke 
from  their  day-dream  of  arrow-flight  through 
space,  stepped  out,  and  paid  the  cabman. 
They  laughed  together  at  the  thought,  with 
out  necessity  of  mentioning  what  amused 
them.  Vestalia,  before  they  entered  the  res 
taurant,  drew  her  companion  a  few  doors  up 
the  street,  and  halted  before  the  narrow  win 
dow  of  the  old  French  bootmaker's  shop. 
Here  they  laughed  again,  he  merrily,  she  with 
a  lingering,  mellow  aftermath  of  feeling  in  her 
tone. 

It  was  only  when  they  were  seated  in  the 
little  room  above  and  she  had  drawn  off  her 
gloves,  and  after  a  joyous  insistence  upon  do 
ing  it  all  herself,  had  chosen  some  dishes  from 
the  card  and  sent  the  waiter  off  with  the  order, 
that  their  tongues  were  loosened. 

David  leaned  back  in  his  chair,  and  beamed 


240  March  Hares. 

broad  content.  He  began  to  talk  in  the 
measured,  smooth-flowing  tone  which  she  re 
membered  so  well.  "  First  of  all,  dear  girl," 
he  said,  "I  want  to  put  on  the  record  my 
boundless  delight  at  finding  you  once  more. 
I  take  off  my  hat  to  the  gods.  They  have  de 
vised  in  my  behalf  a  boon  which  swallows  up 
all  the  imaginable  ills  of  a  lifetime.  I  swear 
to  complain  of  nothing  they  do  for  the  rest  of 
my  days.  They  have  given  you  back  to  me ; 
and  if  I  am  dull  enough  to  lose  you  again, 
why,  I  will  bow  my  head  submissively  to  the 
deserved  mishaps  of  an  ass." 

The  girl's  blue  eyes  twinkled  with  a  soft, 
glad  light.  "It  is  a  great  joy  to  hear  your 
voice  again,"  she  said,  gently.  "The  echoes 
of  it  have  kept  up  a  little  faint  murmur  in  my 
ears  ever  since  we  parted,  as  if  some  spirit  was 
holding  a  phantom  shell  close  to  my  head. 
And  now  it  is  as  if  we  hadn't  parted  at  all, 
isn't  it? — I  mean,  for  the  present." 

"  Ah,  it  matters  so  little  what  you  mean," 
he  replied,  in  affectionate  banter.  "I  erred 
once,  to  my  profound  misfortune,  in  deferring 


March  Hares.  241 

to  your  mental  processes,  and  permitting  them 
to  translate  themselves  into  actions.  Do  not 
think  that  I  shall  be  so  weak  again.  The  key 
shall  never  fail  to  be  turned  on  you  here 
after." 

She  laughed  gaily,  and  shook  her  head  in 

playful  defiance.  "  Ah,  but  suppose "  she 

began,  and  then  let  a  glance  of  merry  archness 
complete  her  sentence. 

"  I  confess  to  curiosity,"  he  said.  "  I 
should  prize  highly  your  conception  of  the 
motives  which  prompted  you  to  run  away 
from  me." 

Her  mood  sobered  perceptibly.  "  I  did  it 
because  it  was  right." 

"  As  a  mainspring  of  human  action,  that 
is  inadequate,"  he  commented.  "Almost  all 
painful  and  embarrassing  things  are  right,  but 
wise  people  avoid  them  as  much  as  possible 
none  the  less." 

"  No,  it  was  right  for  me  to  go,"  she  per 
sisted.  "  I  couldn't  stay  and  be  dependent 
upon  someone  else,  no  matter  who  that  some 
one  elso  was.  Your  kindness  to  me  that  whole 


242  March  Hares. 

day  was  more  grateful  to  me  than  you  can 
think.  I  was  so  frightened  in  that  early 
morning  there  on  the  bridge,  so  desolate  and 
helpless  and  sick  with  dread  of  what  was  going 
to  become  of  me,  that  I  didn't  dream  of  hesi 
tating  to  take  shelter  in  your — your  friend 
ship.  It  was  like  going  under  some  hospitable 
roof  while  there  was  a  drenching  rain  outside, 
and  I  was  very  thankful  for  the  refuge.  But 
when  it  cleared  up,  I  couldn't  go  on  staying, 
just  because  I  had  been  made  welcome,  now, 
could  I?" 

"  Since  you  ask  me,  I  declare  with  tearful 
emphasis  that  you  could." 

"No,  seriously,"  urged  Vestalia;  "don't 
you  agree  with  me  that  women  should  be  just 
as  self-reliant  and  independent  as  men  ?  " 

"  Me  ?  I  agree  absolutely.  I  would  have 
women  insist  upon  the  most  unflinching  inde 
pendence,  all  the  world  over.  I  feel  so  keenly 
on  that  point,  that  out  of  the  entire  sex  I 
would  make  only  one  exception.  Very  few 
people  would  take  such  an  advanced  position 
as  that,  I  imagine.  Just  fancy  how  far  I  go ! 


March  Hares.  243 

There  are  hundreds  of  millions  of  women,  and 
I  would  have  them  all  independent  but  just 
one.  By  a  curious  accident  it  happens  that 
you  are  that  one — but  you  will  be  fair-minded 
enough  to  recognise,  I  feel  convinced,  that 
this  is  the  merest  chance." 

She  made  a  droll  little  mouth  at  him,  and 
he  went  on : 

"  Yes,  it  is  very  strange.  I  cannot  pretend 
to  account  for  it,  but  you  do  undoubtedly  form 
an  exception  to  what  would  otherwise  be  a 
universal  rule.  The  thought  of  other  women 
earning  their  own  living  fills  me  with  joy.  I 
am  fascinated  by  it,  I  assure  you.  I  feel  like 
bursting  into  song  at  the  barest  suggestion  of 
the  idea.  But  this  very  excess  of  reverence 
for  the  general  principle  begets  a  correspond 
ing  vehemence  of  feeling  about  the  one  soli 
tary  exception.  That  is  in  accordance  with  a 
natural  law.  Surely  you  respect  natural  laws  ? 
Well,  the  vaguest  adumbration  of  an  idea  of 
your  doing  things  for  yourself  convulses  me 
with  rage.  The  notion  that  my  right  to  take 
entire  charge  of  you  is  disputed  seems  mon- 


244  Marcli  Hares. 

strous  and  abominable  to  me.  It  is  a  denial 
of  my  mission  on  earth,  and  I  am  bound  to 
combat  it  with  all  my  powers." 

Vestalia  smiled.  "I  see  what  you  mean. 
You  are  just  an  old  prehistoric  savage  like  the 
rest  of  your  sex.  Your  one  idea  is  to  drag  a 
woman  off  into  your  cave  and  keep  her  there, 
with  a  big  rock  rolled  up  in  front  of  the  door 
when  you're  away." 

"  I  would  not  have  you  disparage  the 
primitive  instincts,"  urged  Mosscrop,  with  an 
air  of  solemnity.  "  My  word  for  it,  we  should 
be  an  extraordinarily  uninteresting  lot  without 
them.  They  are  the  abiding  bone  and  flesh 
and  muscle  of  humanity,  upon  which  it  pleases 
each  foolish  generation  in  turn  to  stretch  its 
own  thin,  trivial  pelt  of  fashionable  conven 
tion.  My  desire  to  seize  you,  and  drag  you  off 
to  my  own  cave,  and  make  a  life's  business  of 
keeping  you  there,  always  beautiful,  always 
happy,  always  replenishing  the  well-spring  of 
joy  in  my  existence — you  choose  that  as  some 
thing  typical  of  the  primeval  man  surviving 
within  me.  Let  me  tell  you,  sweet  little  Ves- 


Marcli  Hares.  245 

talia,  that  the  human  mind  would  cease  to 
morrow  from  its  eternal  wistful  dream  of 
progress  if  it  were  not  for  the  hope  that  ad 
vancing  civilisation  will  bring  improved  facili 
ties  for  that  sort  of  thing.  The  world  would 
wilt,  and  curl  up  like  a  sapless  leaf,  and  drop 
from  its  solar  stem  into  gaseous  space,  if  that 
anticipation  were  taken  away.  The  race  keeps 
itself  going  only  by  cherishing  the  faith  that 
sometime,  somewhere  in  the  golden  future, 
this  planet  will  be  arranged  so  that  the  right 
woman  will  always  get  into  the  right  cave. 
That  is  what  people  mean  when  they  speak  of 
the  millennium." 

"  That  is  all  very  well,"  said  Vestalia,  "  but 
it  deals  with  everything  from  the  man's  point 
of  view.  Consider  the  other  side  of  the  case. 
What  do  you  say  to  the  woman's  disinclination 
for  cave-life — is  that  not  entitled  to  respect  ?  " 

"  Possibly,"  answered  David,  reflectively — 
"  if  one  were  able  to  believe  in  it." 

The  waiter  entered  at  this  point  with  a 
burdened  tray  in  his  arms,  and  Vestalia  took 
up  the  wine  list  "  Which  is  it  that  we  had — 


246  Mcvrch  Hares. 

that  in  the  lovely  high  green  bottles,  with 
arms  like  a  vase  ?  "  she  asked  Mosscrop.  "  We 
must  have  the  same  again." 

"You  have  told  me  nothing  as  yet,"  said 
David,  reproachfully,  when  they  were  alone 
again,  "of  all  the  thousand  things  I  long  to 
know." 

"  It  is  so  hard  to  tell,"  she  explained,  with 
hesitation.  "  That  is,  there  are  things  that  I 
am  supposed  not  to  tell  to  anybody,  at  pres 
ent,  at  least.  And  as  for  what  I  ought  not  to 
tell  you — why  I  have  been  instructed  to  avoid 
you  altogether.  I  was  even  told  not  to  write 
you — but  I  did  all  the  same — just  once." 

David  took  a  crumpled  envelope  from  an 
inner  pocket  over  his  heart,  held  it  up  for  her 
inspection,  and  replaced  it.  But  even  as  he 
did  so  sombre  shadows  began  to  gather  on  his 
face.  He  laid  down  his  knife  and  fork,  and, 
biting  his  lips,  looked  out  of  the  window. 

Vestalia  swiftly  recalled  gruesome  associa 
tions  with  that  look.  She  stretched  forth  her 
hand,  and  laid  it  on  his  arm.  "  You  mustn't 
look  out  there,"  she  protested.  "  It  has  a  bad 


Marcli  Hares.  247 

effect  on  you.  Look  me  in  the  face  instead — 
please ! " 

He  shook  his  head  impatiently,  and  stared 
with  dogged,  blinking  eyes  at  the  opposite 
roofs.  "You  don't  realise  what  it  has  all 
meant  to  me,"  he  said  at  last,  his  gaze  still 
averted.  The  quaver  in  his  voice  profoundly 
affected  the  girl. 

"  Listen  to  me — David,"  she  said,  with 
something  of  his  pathos  reflected  in  her  tone. 
"Turn  and  look  at  me.  I  haven't  the  heart 
for  even  a  moment  of  misunderstanding  to 
day.  There  isn't  anything  on  earth  I  won't 
tell  you.  But  you  must  look  at  me  ! " 

He  slowly  obeyed  her,  and  she  saw  that 
there  were  tears  in  his  eyes.  "  But  apparently 
there  are  things  which  it  would  be  merciful 
not  to  tell  me,"  he  said,  struggling  for  an  in 
stant  for  composure.  Then  his  brows  knitted 
themselves,  and  flashes  played  in  the  darkness 
of  his  glance.  "Who  forbids  you  this  or 
that  ?  "  he  demanded,  the  angry  metallic  growl 
rising  in  his  voice.  "  Four  days  ago  you  were 
all  alone  in  the  world  !  You  told  me  so !  In 


248  Ma/rch  Hovres. 

detail  you  assured  me  of  your  isolation.  What 
are  you  talking  about  now?  You  speak  of  re 
ceiving  instructions — to  avoid  me  altogether, 
to  write  no  letter  to  me !  Oh,  I  ask  for  no  ex 
planations "  he  went  on  stormily,  pushing 

back  his  chair  to  rise  from  the  table — "  don't 
think  I  claim  any  right  to  question  you.  But 
I  find  myself  mistaken,  that  is  all !  I  am  a 
silly  duffer  at  a  game  of  this  sort.  I  take 
things  in  earnest,  while  the  others  are  laugh 
ing  in  their  sleeves.  Well,  I've  had  my  lesson. 
Before  God,  I'll  never " 

Vestalia  screamed  at  him.  She  had  half- 
risen  in  her  place,  gazing  with  bewildered, 
affrighted  eyes,  till  some  vague  inkling  of  his 
meaning  dawned  upon  her  brain.  "  Foolish 
David  !  Foolish !  "  she  cried  aloud  now. 
"  Stop  it !  Stop  it !  You  don't  know  what 
you're  saying !  Keep  still,  and  let  me  talk  to 
you ! " 

She  bent  across  the  table,  and  peremptorily 
shook  his  shoulder  to  enforce  her  words. 
"  You're  all  wrong ! "  she  clamoured,  as  his 
tempest  of  wrathful  words  subsided.  Upon 


March  Hares.  249 

the  silence  which  followed  she  implanted 
firmly  the  added  comment  :  "  Oh,  you 
goose ! " 

He  looked  up  sullenly  to  her,  as  she  stood 
now  erect — and,  meeting  the  glance  in  her 
eyes,  felt  himself  clinging  to  it.  There  was 
for  him  the  effect  of  sunshine  in  it — of  clouds 
parted,  of  radiance  and  calm,  restored  about 
him.  Breathing  hard,  he  gazed  into  her  face, 
and  came  somehow  to  know  from  what  he  saw 
in  it  that  he  had  been  making  a  fool  of  him 
self.  This  perception  assumed  sharp  out 
lines  in  his  mind  before  she  had  spoken  a 
word. 

"  Now,  will  you  behave  yourself,  and  listen 
to  me?"  she  demanded,  with  austerity.  His 
shattered  aspect  of  contrition  was  a  sufficient 
answer,  and  she  seated  herself  confidently. 
"  Now  I  will  explain  things  to  you — although 
you  don't  deserve  it  in  the  very  least,"  she  be 
gan,  in  formal  tones.  "  To  commence  with, 
you  remember  that  American  father  and 
daughter  that  we  met  at  the  Museum,  down  in 
the  basement? — well,  it  happened  that — hap- 


250  March  Jfares. 

pened  that — Oh,  my  poor  boy,  how  could  you 
think  so  stupidly  of  me  ?  " 

David  had  drawn  up  to  his  place  again. 
He  held  Vestalia's  hands  in  his  at  this  junc 
ture,  somehow,  and  the  enchanted  table  nar 
rowed  itself  until  there  was  no  barrier  of  space 
between  their  lips. 

The  little  kiss  sweetened  the  air.  The  two, 
even  while  they  exchanged  a  glance  of  shy  sur 
prise,  thought  of  it  with  reverence.  They  in 
stinctively  gave  to  its  contemplation  a  moment 
of  tender  silence. 

"  How  shrewd  you  were  in  discerning  my 
leaven  of  savagery,"  he  remarked  at  last.  "  Or 
leaven?  we'd  better  say  principal  ingredi 
ent  ! " 

"  I  like  you  that  way,"  said  Vestalia, 
quietly. 

He  smiled  at  her  in  dreamy  incredulity. 
"  I  wonder  if  you  do,"  he  mused.  "  They  say 
women  do  like  men  who  beat  them.  The 
police  courts  seem  to  support  the  idea.  But 
there  is  a  difficulty,  you  see.  If  you  liked  me 
because  I  behaved  badly  to  you,  then  I  should 


March  Hares.  251 

dislike  you  on  precisely  that  account.  So  you 
mustn't  suggest  approbation.  No,  I  was  very 
rude  and  stupid,  and  I  am  profoundly  ashamed 
of  myself.  I  should  be  ashamed  to  offer  an 
excuse,  too,  if  it  were  not  just  the  one  it  is. 
I  happen  to  be  head  over  heels  in  love  with 
you,  dear  little  lady." 

"  And  precisely  what  is  that  an  excuse 
for  ?  "  demanded  the  girl,  with  a  fine  show  of 
ingenuous  calm. 

"  For  letting  my  luncheon  get  cold,"  he  re 
plied,  taking  up  his  fork. 

With  the  laughter  of  pleased  children, 
they  resumed  the  broken  course  of  the  meal. 

"  It  doesn't  begin  to  be  as  nice  as  your 
breakfast,"  she  commented  after  a  little. 

"  I  don't  think  it  is  a  day  for  things  to 
eat,"  he  said,  pushing  the  plate  aside.  "  I 
want  to  do  nothing  but  just  look  at  you — per 
haps  talk  a  little — but  hear  you  talk  much 
more.  I  am  conscious  of  an  indefinite  hunger 
for  the  mere  visual  charm  of  you,  sitting  there 
opposite  me.  It  seems  as  if  it  would  take 
years  to  satisfy  that  alone.  Do  you  know  that 
17 


252  March  Ha/res. 

you  are  very  beautiful,  dear,  in  your  new 
Clothes?" 

She  regarded  his  face  with  a  keen,  almost 
anxious  glance,  before  she  let  the  softer  look 
dominate  her  own.  "  I  am  going  to  hurry  to 
tell  you  where  I  got  them,"  she  said.  "  They 
are  the  gift  of  my  uncle — my  father's  brother. 
This  was  what  I  was  beginning  to  explain 
when — when  you  got  so  unhappy." 

«Yes — that  is  the  merciful  word — un 
happy,"  he  assented,  with  gratitude.  "  I  have 
been  deeply  out  of  sorts — mentally — since  I 
lost  you  that  night.  There  is  a  special  devil 
inside  of  me,  Vestalia,  who  sometimes  lies  low 
for  long  periods,  and  hardly  reminds  me  of 
his  existence,  but  since  last  Thursday  he  has 
been  out  on  the  war-path,  night  and  day.  My 
nerves  are  stretched  like  fiddle-strings,  just 
with  the  effort  of  holding  him.  The  sight  of 
you  is  death  to  him,  dear.  He  is  gone  now — 
clean  out  of  existence.  And  while  you  stay, 
he  won't  return.  But  the  wretch  has  left 
me  tired  and  a  little  tremulous.  I  want  to 
rest  myself  by  just  looking  at  you." 


March  Hares.  253 

She,  smiling  with  demure  pleasure  at  his 
speech  and  his  look,  related  to  him  briefly  the 
story  of  the  Skinner  pedigree.  "  It  occurred 
to  me  the  minute  I  woke  up  in  the  early 
morning,"  she  declared.  "  I  shall  always  be 
lieve  that  I  really  dreamed  it  first.  Are  you 
interested  in  dreams  ?  " 

"  Oh  immensely — at  the  time." 

"  JSTo ;  but  there  is  something  in  them.  I 
assure  you,  the  idea  never  entered  my  head  the 
day  we  met  them.  But  before  I  was  fairly 
awake  next  morning,  lo,  there  it  was,  all 
worked  out.  The  old  gentleman  was  polite 
ness  itself.  He  came  down  immediately,  when 
I  sent  my  note  upstairs.  When  I  told  him 
about  wanting  to  make  a  pedigree  of  the 
Skinners,  the  notion  appealed  to  him  at  once. 
Then  I  told  him  about  something  else,  and 
that  appealed  to  him  a  good  deal  more." 

Vestalia  paused  here,  and  began  to  regard 
her  companion  with  signs  of  diminishing  con 
fidence.  "  I  can't  go  any  farther  without  mak 
ing  a  most  humiliating  confession  to  you,"  she 
faltered. 


254  March  Hares. 

"Then  don't  go  any  farther,  I  beseech 
you,"  he  answered.  "Truly,  I  do  not  find 
myself  stirred  very  much  by  this  entire  dem 
onstration  of  your  ability  to  do  things  off  your 
own  bat.  It  is  independent  and  praiseworthy 
and  all  that,  no  doubt,  but  I  still  have  a  linger 
ing  feeling  that  you  ought  to  have  stayed  to 
breakfast,  you  know,  and  left  mere  commercial 
details  to  me.  And  I  certainly  shrink  from 
humiliating  confessions.  Skip  the  unpleasant 
parts.  We  will  have  no  skeletons  at  our  feast 
to-day." 

"Ah,  but  they  can't  be  skipped,"  sighed 
Vestalia.  She  drew  nearer  to  him,  across  the 
table,  and  lowered  her  voice.  "  I  foolishly  told 
you  some  things  that  were  not  so — that  first 
morning,"  she  confided  in  doleful  tones.  "  It 
was  a  kind  of  romance  about  myself  that  I  had 
built  up  in  my  own  mind,  and  without  much 
thought  I  gave  it  to  you  as  truth.  So  long  as 
I  kept  it  to  myself  it  did  no  harm ;  it  even 
made  life  easier  and  more  endurable  for  me, 
like  a  poor  child  making-believe  that  she  and 
her  rag  doll  are  princesses.  But  it  was  differ- 


March  Hares.  255 

ent  to  tell  you.  My  father  was  not  a  French 
gentleman.  He  was  not  an  officer,  and  he 
wasn't  killed  in  a  duel.  He  was  never  in 
Prance  any  more  than  I  was.  My  mother  was 
Scotch,  but  she  did  not  belong  to  any  noble  or 
wealthy  family.  She  did  not  leave  any  family 
jewels  with  a  crest  on  them,  and  no  one 
cheated  her  out  of  a  private  fortune,  because 
she  never  had  such  a  thing.  It  was  just  my 
individual  fairyland  that  I  described  to  you  as 
real.  I  didn't  even  tell  you  my  true  name." 

David  smiled  solace  upon  her  distressed 
aspect.  "  You  speak  as  if  it  were  of  impor 
tance.  Dear  child,  do  we  value  a  rare  and 
beautiful  lily  the  less,  because  the  gardener 
has  put  the  wrong  label  on  it  by  mistake? 
Tut — tut !  Names  and  lineage  and  all  that — 
it  is  the  idlest  stuff  on  earth  to  me.  The  story 
that  you  told  me  was  pleasant  in  my  ears  only 
because  it  came  from  your  lips.  The  discovery 
now  that  it  was  all  yours — that  it  was  not  the 
mere  recital  of  dull  facts,  but  was  the  child  of 
your  own  inner  imaginings — why  that  only 
makes  it  the  more  delightful  to  me.  I  simply 


256  March  Hares. 

gave  it  store-room  in  my  memory  before;  I 
love  it  now — and  at  the  same  time  I  find  I 
have  quite  forgotten  it.  There  is  a  paradox 
for  you ! " 

Vestalia  essayed  a  smile  through  her  tears. 
"You  are  always  kinder  than  even  I  expect 
you  to  be,"  she  faltered ;  "  but  I  did  tell  you  a 
— a  story,  and  by  rights  you  should  be  very 
angry  with  me." 

David  laughed.  "  Hans  Christian  Ander 
sen  told  me  many  stories,  but  I  worshipped 
him  increasingly  to  the  end.  Dear  lady,  the 
stories  are  the  only  veritable  things  in  life. 
The  alleged  realities  of  existence  pass  loj  us,  or 
roll  over  us,  and  leave  us  colourless  and  empty. 
The  genuine  possessions  of  our  souls  —  the 
things  that  shape  and  decorate  and  furnish 
our  spiritual  habitations — are  the  things  that 
never  happened.  I  note  a  twinkle  in  your  eye. 
You  fancy  that  I  have  said  an  inept  thing. 
You  think  that  I  shall  have  to  go  back  and 
explain  that  at  least  what  has  happened  to  us 
forms  an  exception  to  the  rule.  Ah,  sweet 
little  Vestalia,  have  you  forgotten  your  own 


Mar cli  Hares.  257 

remark,  here  in  this  very  room  ?  '  It  isn't  like 
real  life  at  all,'  you  said ;  '  it  is  the  way  things 
happen  in  fairy  tales.'  I  take  my  stand  upon 
that  definition.  We  have  deliberately  repudi 
ated  what  are  described  as  the  realities  of  life. 
We  discard  them,  cut  them  dead,  decline  to 
have  anything  whatever  to  do  with  them.  We 
declare  that  it  is  fairyland  that  we  are  living 
in,  and  that  we  refuse  to  come  out  of  it  to  the 
end  of  our  days." 

Vestalia  gazed  into  his  eyes  with  wistful 
tenderness.  "To  the  end  of  our  days!"  she 
murmured  softly,  wonderingly.  Then  she  re 
called  the  task  still  unfinished.  "  I  took  the 
name  of  Peaussier,"  she  forced  herself  to  con 
tinue,  "  because  it  was  a  translation  of  my 
own  name.  I  looked  in  the  dictionary,  and 
found  that  it  was  the  French  for  Skinner." 

David  lifted  his  brows.  "  You  don't  mean 
"  he  began,  confusedly. 

"  Yes ;  "  she  forestalled  his  question.  "  The 
old  gentleman  at  the  Savoy  is  my  father's  own 
brother.  My  father  was  Abram  Skinner.  He 
was  not  a  lucky  man,  or,  in  his  later  years,  a 


258  March  Hares. 

very  nice  man  either.  He  was  always  poor, 
and  toward  the  end  he  was  in  other  troubles 
too.  My  home  was  a  thing  to  shudder  at  the 
recollection  of.  I  ran  away  from  it  after 
mother  died,  and  he's  gone,  too,  now.  I 
changed  the  name,  to  wash  my  hands  of  the 
whole  miserable  thing.  And  then  to  think  of 
the  wonderful  chance — to  stumble  upon  my  own 
uncle,  a  man  of  fortune  and  education,  and  the 
kindest  heart  alive — is  it  not  the  most  extraor 
dinary  thing  that  ever  happened  in  this  world  ?  " 
•'  Very  possibly  it  might  be  regarded  as  ex 
traordinary — out  in  the  so-called  world,"  Da 
vid  assented,  reflectively.  "  But  it  is  just  the 
thing  that  would  be  expected  in  fairyland. 
Yes,  it  seems,  on  the  face  of  it,  a  beneficent 
occurrence.  It  is  good  for  you  to  be  seized 
and  possessed  of  a  rich  uncle — from  some 
points  of  view.  But  from  others — a  doubt 
suggests  itself,  Vestalia,  whether  your  uncle 
is  well-affected  toward  the  fairies.  Standard 
Oil  does  not  lend  itself  without  an  effort  to 
the  fantastic.  What  if  your  uncle  beckons 
you  to  come  forth  from  fairyland  ?  " 


March  Hares.  259 

"  And  leave  you  behind — is  that  what  you 
mean  ?  "  asked  Vestalia,  slowly.  "  That  would 
depend — depend  on  how  much  you  wanted 
me  to  stay." 

David  put  out  his  left  hand  to  take  hers, 
where  it  lay  upon  the  cloth.  With  his  right 
he  drew  out  his  watch.  "  The  name  Skinner," 
he  said,  "  is  all  right  for  the  folk  at  the  Savoy. 
It  is  not  a  suitable  name  for  you.  I  sympa 
thise  fully  with  your  impulse  to  abandon  it. 
The  expedient  which  you  adopted  was,  no 
doubt,  the  best  that  offered  itself  at  the  mo 
ment,  but  I  think  I  know  a  better.  I  must 
leave  you  now,  and  hurry  into  the  City.  This 
is  Monday.  Dear  love,  on  Thursday  I  claim 
the  whole  day  from  you.  We  will  breakfast 
here  at  eight— it  is  not  too  early,  is  it? — or 
say  rather  that  at  just  eight  I  will  come  and 
find  you  on  Westminster  Bridge.  The  day 
must  begin  there,  mustn't  it  ?  And— strange 
ly  enough — Thursday  is  in  a  sort  another 
birthday  of  mine." 

"And  of  mine  too?"  she  asked,  with  a 
light  in  her  eyes. 


CHAPTER  XIT. 

IN  the  early  afternoon  of  Thursday,  David 
Mosscrop  walked  apart  on  shaded  gravel-paths, 
beneath  arches  of  roses  and  the  feathered  can 
opy  of  cedars  high  above,  with  Adele  by  his  side. 

"  Oh,  it's  all  right.  The  waiter  will  come 
out  and  tell  us  when  it  is  ready,"  he  said  re 
assuringly,  in  comment  upon  her  backward 
glance.  "  I  want  to  speak  with  you.  There 
was  no  such  thing  as  a  word  with  you  by  your 
self  on  the  road." 

"  Why,  we  talked  every  mortal  minute," 
she  protested. 

"  Ah  yes,  we  talked,  but  I  don't  recall  that 
anything  was  said." 

"  I  daresay  my  conversation  is  empty  to  the 
last  degree,"  she  observed  ;  "  but  I  am  usually 
spared  such  frank  statements  of  the  fact." 

260 


March  Hares.  261 

"  Ah,  but  I  want  to  be  thought  of  as  some 
thing  a  little  different  from  the  usual,"  urged 
David. 

"  Your  efforts  in  that  direction  have  been 
extraordinarily  successful.  Pray,  do  not  im 
agine  that  they  are  unappreciated.  I  admit 
freely  that  you  seem  to  have  quite  exhausted 
the  unusual,  my  Lord." 

"  No ;  I've  still  got  something  up  my 
sleeve,"  said  David,  lightly  enough.  But  the 
tone  in  which  she  had  uttered  those  final  two 
words  caught  his  attention.  They  carried  a 
suggestion  of  emphasis  which  fell  outside  the 
bounds  of  genial  banter.  Meditating  upon  it 
he  stole  a  covert  glance  at  her,  and  encountered 
two  wide-awake  black  eyes  intently  scrutinising 
him  in  turn.  "  It  was  about  that  I  wished  to 
consult  you,"  he  added,  conscious  of  an  em 
barrassed  tongue. 

"Won't  it  be  better  to  stick  to  scenery?" 
she  asked.  Yes,  there  was  undoubtedly  a 
mocking  touch  in  her  voice.  "  That  is  so  safe 
a  subject.  This  dear  old  hotel  here,  now,  how 
perfectly  satisfying  it  is!  Those  wonderful 


262  March  Hares. 

trees  out  in  front,  and  the  white  chalk  hill  be 
hind,  and  this  garden,  and  then  the  comfort 
and  charm  of  everything  inside,  and  the 
thought  that  people  have  been  coming  here  for 
hundreds  of  years,  or  is  it  thousands  ? — it  is  so 
different  from  anything  we  have  in  America — 
even  in  Kentucky.  And  then  the  whole  drive 
from  London — through  such  delicious  country, 
all  so  rich  and  smooth  and  neatly  packed  to 
gether,  and  so  full  of  the  notion  that  people 
are  all  the  while  planting  and  pruning  and 
admiring  every  inch  of  it  that  you  can't  help 
feeling  affectionately  toward  it  yourself  !  Per 
haps  there  is  a  certain  hint  of  the  artificial 
about  it,  but  somehow  that  seems  rather  in 
keeping  with  the  day  than  otherwise,  doesn't 
it,  my  Lord?" 

While  he  hesitated  about  an  answer,  she 
touched  him  on  the  arm.  "  Here  are  papa  and 
Mr.  Linkhaw  coming  along  after  us — probably 
to  tell  us  luncheon  is  ready.  Shan't  we  wait 
for  them  ?  " 

"  Heavens,  no ! "  cried  David,  starting  for 
ward.  "  We've  been  chained  to  them  on  the 


March  Hares.  263 

top  of  the  coach  for  two  whole  hours,"  he  went 
on,  in  defensive  explanation  of  his  warmth. 
"  Really,  we  have  earned  the  right  to  a  few 
quiet  words  by  ourselves." 

"  Oh,  /  don't  mind,"  said  Adele,  quicken 
ing  her  pace  to  suit  his.  "  Only  it's  fair  to 
warn  you,  though,  that  my  temper  has  its 
limitations.  I  am  a  variable  person.  Some 
times  it  happens  that  all  at  once  I  weary  of  a 
joke,  after  it  has  been  carried  to  a  certain 
length,  and  then  I  can  be  as  unpleasant  as  they 
make  'em." 

"  I  find  that  my  own  sense  of  humour  has  a 
tendency  to  flag  under  sustained  effort,  as  I  get 
older,"  said  David.  "  But  there  are  so  many 
pleasantries  afloat — perhaps  you  wouldn't  mind 
indicating  the  one  which  particularly  fatigues 
you,  and  I  will  put  my  foot  on  it  at  once." 

"  Oh,  by  no  means  !  That  would  be  far  too 
crude.  "We  are  all  your  guests,  and  you  are  in 
charge  of  the  entertainment,  and  I  couldn't 
dream  of  suggesting  anything." 

"  Except  that  you  find  yourself  no  longer 
amused,"  ventured  David,  cautiously. 


264  March  Hares. 

"Oh,  not  at  all."  She  spoke  with  per 
functory  languor,  and  simulated  a  little  yawn. 
"  I  daresay  it  is  all  immensely  funny,  only  I 
got  up  earlier  than  usual  this  morning,  and 
no  doubt  that  has  dulled  my  wits  some 
what." 

David  perceived  on  the  instant  how  matters 
stood.  "  I  also  rose  at  an  extravagantly  early 
hour,"  he  said,  "  and  it  is  about  my  reasons  for 
doing  so  that  I  want  to  tell  you.  But,  first  of 
all,  let  us  be  frank  with  each  other.  I  have 
done  nothing  but  accede  to  a  situation  created 
for  me  by  Archie  and  yourself.  It  has  been 
within  your  power  to  end  it  at  any  moment 
you  choose.  It  has  been  all  along  much  more 
your  joke  than  mine.  It  isn't  fair  to  round 
on  me  for  merely  humouring  )7our  own  con 
ception  of  sport." 

Adele  halted  momentarily,  and  surveyed 
his  composed,  swarthy  countenance  with  lifted 
brows.  "  So  you  saw  all  along  that  /  knew ! " 
she  exclaimed,  in  honest  surprise. 

"How  could  I  have  imagined  that  so 
clumsy  a  performance  as  mine  would  deceive 


March  Hares.  265 

so  clever  a  young  woman?"  lie  rejoined,  with 
a  sprightly  bow. 

"  Oh,  you  did  it  awfully  well,"  she  assured 
him,  complacently.  "  But  tell  me,  did  Archie 
suspect  that  /  knew  ?  " 

"  I  have  been  intimate  with  Archie  from 
the  cradle,"  said  David,  "  but  I  am  still  very 
shy  about  forming  opinions  as  to  his  mental 
processes.  In  this  case,  however,  I  think  it  is 
safe  to  say  he  didn't  suspect — and  still  doesn't 
suspect." 

"Poor  old  Archie,"  mused  Adele,  with  a 
ripening  smile.  "  I  knew  who  he  was  before 
I'd  even  laid  eyes  on  him.  A  school-friend  of 
mine  in  Galveston  wrote  to  me  that  she  had 
met  a  real  Earl,  who  insisted  on  being  known 
as  Mr.  Linkhaw,  and  that  he  was  returning  to 
England  by  way  of  Kentucky.  I've  had  three 
months  of  the  rarest  fun  in  never  letting  on 
that  I  had  the  remotest  suspicion.  You  can't 
imagine  how  comical  it  was.  He  used  to  get 
quite  tearful  sometimes,  I  abused  the  aristoc 
racy  so  fiercely.  And  then,  the  joke  was,  papa 
began — his  whole  idea  of  conversation  is  to 


266  March  Hares. 

take  up  to-day  what  I've  said  yesterday,  and 
multiply  my  words  by  a  hundred  and  twelve, 
and  produce  the  result  as  his  own;  and  he 
worked  up  the  anti-Earl  agitation  till  Archie 
very  nearly  went  off  into  chronic  melancholia. 
It  was  better  than  any  comedy  that  ever  was 
written — but  then  you  stumbled  your  way  into 
the  middle  of  it,  and  got  it  all  twisted  and 
tangled  up— and  it  hasn't  been  so  amusing 
since  then." 

"  My  dear  Miss  Skinner,"  protested  David, 
"  I  think  my  entrance  upon  the  scene  deserves 
a  gentler  verb.  If  you  will  search  your  mem 
ory,  you  will  find  that  I  came  in  by  express 
invitation.  It  was  you  who  deliberately  thrust 
my  mock  honours  upon  me." 

"Oh,  I  know  that,"  she  responded,  readily 
enough.  "I  thought  that  would  only  make 
the  thing  funnier  still — but  somehow  it  hasn't. 
It  isn't  anything  about  Archie  and  me,  you 
know.  But  there  is  another  element  in  the 
case  that  I  feel  very  keenly  about.  It  has  been 
puzzling  me  for  days,  but  I  only  learned  the 
truth  last  night.  I  simply  made  papa  tell  me. 


March  Hares.  267 

I  refused  flat-footed  to  come  here  to-day,  or  to 
do  anything  else  that  was  reasonable,  unless  he 
did  tell  me.  I  have  a  cousin  here  in  England, 
Mr.  Mosscrop,  a  daughter  of  my  father's  own 
brother,  and  she  is  one  of  the  dearest  girls  that 
ever  lived." 

"  I  can  readily  credit  that,"  declared  David, 
pointing  his  meaning  with  a  little  inclination 
of  the  head. 

"  Oh,  she  is  far  nicer  than  I  am,"  cried 
Adele.  "  She  wouldn't  trifle  with  the  feelings 
of  the  man  she  loved,  or  play  tricks  with  him 
just  for  the  sake  of  fun.  In  fact,  I  almost 
blame  her  for  taking  such  things  too  seriously. 
She  hasn't  had  too  easy  a  time  of  it,  poor  girl, 
and  it  has  made  her,  /  think,  altogether  too 
humble.  She  met  a  young  man  in  the  midst 
of  her  troubles  who,  it  seems,  was  civil  to  her, 
and  even  kind  as  men  go,  and  what  does  she 
do  but  just  sit  down  and  worship  the  very 
memory  of  him,  and  cry  out  her  pretty  blue 
eyes  over  it — and  he — he  walks  off  and  never 
gives  her  another  thought.  That's  the  man 

of  it!" 

18 


268  March  Hares. 

A  gleam  of  indignation  flashed  through  the 
moisture  in  her  own  eyes  as  she  bent  them 
upon  her  companion.  Her  bosom  heaved  the 
more  as  she  discerned  a  broad  smile  extending 
itself  upon  his  face. 

"  Although  I  might  demur  to  details,"  he 
said,  restraining  the  gaiety  which  struggled 
for  expression  in  his  voice,  "  I  must  not  pre 
tend  to  fail  to  recognise  the  portrait  you  have 
drawn.  I  am  the  guilty  man  ! " 

"  You  laugh  at  it ! "  she  exclaimed.  "  To 
you  it  seems  a  joke ! " 

"Are  you  so  certain  that  there  isn't  a  joke 
concealed  somewhere  about  it  ?  "  he  suggested, 
calmly. 

"  I  lose  patience  with  you  !  You  make  a 
jest  of  everything.  Tell  me  this  much :  Do 
you  or  do  you  not  know  her  present  address?" 

"  I  know  precisely  where  she  is  to  be  found 
at  the  present  moment,"  said  David,  speaking 
now  with  gravity. 

"  Well,  and  have  you  been  there  to  see  her  ? 
Have  you  written  to  her  there?  Have  you 
given  her  the  slightest  sign  since  she  has  been 


March  Houses.  269 

there  of  any  desire  on  your  part  to  ever  see 
her  again?" 

"  I  must  answer  '  JSTo '  to  each  question,  I 
am  afraid,"  he  responded,  and  had  the  grace 
to  hang  his  head. 

His  evident  humility  only  momentarily  im 
pressed  her.  "  I  am  disappointed  in  you,"  she 
said.  "Where  will  you  find  a  sweeter  or 
truer  woman?  Don't  think  I  am  throwing 
her  at  your  head !  Quite  the  contrary.  If 
you  were  to  ask  for  her  now,  I  should  advise 
with  all  my  might  against  you.  But  you  have 
behaved  like  a  simpleton.  I  am  going  to 
have  her  always  live  with  me,  or  near  me. 
She  is  my  own  flesh  and  blood,  and  I  love  her 
as  if  she  were  my  sister.  She  doesn't  know, 
as  yet,  that  I  am  aware  of  the  relationship ; 
but  I  have  written  to  her  this  very  morning, 
telling  her  to  come  and  see  me  to-night,  when 
I  get  back.  I  am  going  to  spend  some  money 
in  Scotland." 

"  It  will  be  profoundly  appreciated,  believe 
me." 

She  sniffed  at  his  interjection.     "  I  intend 


270  March  Hares. 

to  buy  land  right  and  left  in  Elgin,  and  if 
Skirl  Castle  isn't  good  enough — I  don't  think 
much  of  it  from  the  photographs — we'll  build 
a  bigger  one,  and  we'll  make  that  whole  sec 
tion  hum ;  and  Vestalia  shall  be  as  big  an  heir 
ess  as  it  contains,  and  the  lucky  man  who  mar 
ries  her  shall  be  treated  like  a  brother  of  mine 
and  Archie's.  And  that  is  what  you  have 
thrown  away.  I  say  it  to  you  frankly,  because 
it  is  all  over  so  far  as  you  are  concerned.  She 
will  listen  to  me,  and  my  mind  is  quite  made 
up — and  papa  can  tell  you  what  that  means ! " 

"  Even  if  your  decision  were  not  irrevoca 
ble,"  said  David,  solemnly,  "  my  answer  would 
of  necessity  be  the  same.  I  would  do  much  to 
please  you,  but  I  do  not  see  my  way  to  marry 
ing  your  cousin." 

They  had  paused  to  exchange  these  last 
sentences,  and  now  upon  the  instant  the  Earl 
and  his  elderly  companion  came  up.  David 
essayed  a  revelatory  wink  to  the  nobleman,  but 
it  fell  upon  the  stony  places  in  Lord  Drum- 
pipes  wondering  stare. 

Mr.  Skinner  wiped   his  brow  decorously, 


March  Ha/res.  271 

and  breathed  appreciation  of  the  halt.  "  Sir," 
he  began,  addressing  David,  "  I  must  assume 
that  I  am  enjoying  the  opportunity  of  study 
ing  a  district  of  England  peculiarly  favoured 
by  Nature,  and  exceptionally  embellished  as 
well  by  the  hand  of  man  ;  but  I  wish  to  give 
expression  to  emotions  of  unmixed  delight  at 
all  that  I  observe  about  me.  "We  have  in 
spected  the  internal  appointments  of  the  an 
cient  hostelry,  and  have  revelled,  sir,  in  the 
luxurious  yet  studiously  regulated  beauties  of 
this  garden,  and  I  confess  that  the  novelty  of 
the  one  and  the  charm  of  the  other  far  surpass 
anything " 

"  Papa,"  interposed  his  daughter,  with  cold 
severity,  "  we  will  leave  these  gentlemen  to  en 
joy  the  novelties  and  charms  by  themselves  for 
a  few  minutes,  if  you  please.  I  have  an  ex 
planation  to  make  to  you,  since  no  one  else 
offers  it,  and  I  think  it  should  be  no  longer 
deferred." 

She  took  her  father's  arm  as  she  spoke, 
and  led  him  in  a  direct  line  across  the  sward 
toward  the  broad,  low-lying,  ivy-clad  rear  of 


272  March  Hares. 

the  hotel.  "Oh,  it's  all  right;  they  don't 
mind  your  walking  on  the  grass  in  England," 
the  two  young  men  heard  her  say  as  she  de 
parted. 

These  partners  in  deception  gazed  after 
her  for  a  space.  Then  they  looked  at  each 
other. 

"  Davie,  I  don't  like  it,"  said  the  Earl. 

"Don't  like  what?" 

"  I'm  afraid  she's  got  some  kind  of  an  ink 
ling.  It  looks  as  if  a  suspicion  were  dawning 
in  her  mind.  I  warned  you  she  was  keen  of 
scent." 

Mosscrop  burst  forth  with  a  peremptory 
guffaw  of  laughter.  "You  duffer  of  the 
earth,"  he  cried,  "  she  knew  all  about  you  be 
fore  ever  she  laid  eyes  on  you ! "  He  unfold 
ed  the  chuckling  narrative  forthwith,  to  the 
Earl's  profound  astonishment  and  concern. 

"  Why  then,  man,"  Drumpipes  ejaculated 
at  last,  staring  hard  at  the  close-cropped  lawn, 
"  I  can't  tell  in  the  least  if  she  loves  me  for 
myself  alone." 

"  Oh,  you  read  that  in  some  novel,"  ob- 


March  Hares. 


jected  David.  "  It's  a  mere  phrase;  it  has  no 
significance  in  real  life." 

"  Yes  ;  but,"  the  other  pursued,  dejectedly, 
"  I  don't  see  how  I  can  make  sure  that  she 
loves  me  in  any  kind  of  way." 

"  At  all  events,  she's  going  to  marry  you," 
David  re-assured  him.  "  She  mentioned  the 
fact  to  me,  casually.  And  she's  going  to  buy 
up  Elgin  right  and  left,  and  build  a  new  Skirl 
Castle  as  big  as  Olympia,  and  generally  make 
everything  else  north  of  the  Grampians  4  sing 
small  '  —  I  believe  that's  the  phrase." 

The  Earl  assimilated  this  intelligence  with 
a  kindling  eye.  "Man,  it's  fine!"  he  cried, 
as  the  prospect  spread  itself  out  before  his 
mental  vision.  "  Ah,  poor  Davie,  you  dinna 
ken  what  it  is  to  be  in  love  !  " 

Mosscrop  sighed.  "  When  you  talk  Scots, 
Archie,"  he  said,  "  I  know  it's  going  to  cost  me 
money.  I  foresee  that  you'll  kick  about  the 
bill.  But,  hurry,  man,  and  catch  up  with 
them.  She's  quite  capable  of  flouncing  out  of 
the  house,  and  dragging  her  father  along,  too, 
while  the  fit  is  on  her  ;  and  that  would  only 


274  March  Ha/res. 

mean  more  bother  to  coax  them  back.  Come 
on!" 

He  started  at  a  brisk  pace  in  pursuit,  and 
Drumpipes  strode  eagerly  beside  him.  They 
overtook  their  guests  on  the  very  threshold  of 
the  door,  and  the  Earl  called  out  a  breathless, 
entreating  "  Adele  ! "  The  girl,  upon  reflec 
tion,  turned,  and  surveyed  the  pair  with  an 
austere  eye. 

"  Wait  a  moment,  papa,"  she  said  in  her 
coldest  tone ;  "  one  of  these  two  gentlemen 
seems  to  feel  authorised  to  address  me  by  my 
Christian  name,  and  apparently  has  also  some 
communication  to  make  to  us." 

"Well,"  stammered  Drumpipes,  hesitat 
ingly,  "  there's  an  awfully  good  luncheon  been 
ordered,  you  know." 

Mosscrop  emitted  an  abrupt,  resonant  note 
of  laughter,  and  in  the  silence  which  ensued 
displayed  violent  muscular  efforts  to  keep  a 
grin  from  convulsing  his  face. 

Adele  preserved  the  severity  of  her  aspect 
for  a  little.  "  I  think  it  might  occur  to  you, 
Lord  Drumpipes,"  she  began,  markedly  ad- 


March  Hares.  275 

dressing  her  remarks  to  the  rightful  bearer  of 
the  title,  "  that  after  what  has  happened — and 
on  this  point,  I  can  assure  you  my  father  feels 
exactly  as  I  do " 

She  stopped  here,  with  the  effect  of  appeal 
ing  to  her  father  for  immediate  confirmation 
of  their  inflexible  joint  attitude. 

"  I  need  scarcely  observe,"  began  Mr.  Skin 
ner,  putting  up  his  pince-nez  and  looking 
down  upon  the  two  young  men  with  sternness 
from  the  vantage  of  the  door-step,  "  that  what 
ever  course  my  daughter  deems  it  consistent 
with  her  dignity  to  pursue,  in  the  face  of  the 
extraordinary,  and,  I  may  confidently  add,  un 
precedented  circumstances  which  we  are  called 
upon  to — to  confront,  has  my  most  unswerv 
ing  adhesion." 

A  waiter  opened  the  door  inward  at  this 
instant,  and  overlaid  Mr.  Skinner's  peroration 
with  a  clear-cut  message,  Germanic  in  its  non- 
essentials,  but  broadly  human  in  import. 

The  old  gentleman  gasped,  twiddled  the 
string  of  his  glasses  in  his  fingers,  and  leant 
his  head  sidewise  toward  his  daughter.  "  Yes, 


276  March  Hares. 

but  what  is  it  we're  going  to  do  ?  "  he  inquired 
in  a  nervous  whisper. 

"Do?"  cried  Mosscrop,  who  had  caught 
her  glance  in  his  own,  and  convicted  it  of 
latent  merriment,  "  Do  ?  Why  we're  going  to 
laugh  at  a  harmless  pleasantry  happily  ended, 
and  pass  in  to  luncheon." 

"  Yes,  papa,"  said  Adele,  upon  considera 
tion,  and  with  a  dawning  smile  upon  her  lips, 
"  I  think  that  is  what  we're  going  to  do." 

When  they  found  themselves  standing 
about  the  table  in  the  private  room,  overlook 
ing  through  open  French  windows  the  de 
lightful  sunlit  garden  from  which  they  had 
come,  Mosscrop  seized  the  moment  of  hesi 
tation  about  seats  to  hold  up  his  hand. 
Though  he  had  been  bereft  of  his  borrowed 
dignities,  the  air  of  natural  command  sat  easi 
ly  upon  him. 

"  I  have  to  ask  you  for  a  minute  or  two  of 
delay,"  he  said.  "  It  will  explain  itself." 

He  wrote  something  on  a  card  as  he  spoke, 
and  gave  it  to  the  waiter  with  a  closely-guarded 
whisper  of  injunction.  As  the  servant  left  the 


March  Ha/res.  277 

room,  David  turned  to  the  others  with  a  radi 
ant  face. 

"  Mr.  Skinner,"  he  began,  "  and  my  younger 
friends,  there  is  a  toast  which  in  England  is 
always  drunk  standing.  It  occurs  to  me  to 
propose  it  to  you,  on  this  single  occasion,  be 
fore  we  have  taken  our  seats  at  all.  As  has 
been  remarked  with  characteristic  perspicaci 
ty,  the  circumstances  which  we  find  ourselves 
called  upon  to  confront  are  extraordinary 
in  character,  and  altogether  unprecedented. 
Through  the  courtesy  of  my  friends,  I  have 
for  a  brief  period  had  devolved  upon  me  the 
responsibility  of  behaving,  at  stated  intervals, 
as  a  member  of  the  Scotch  peerage  should  be 
have.  I  view  my  deportment  throughout  this 
ordeal,  in  retrospect,  with  a  considerable  de 
gree  of  satisfaction.  I  have  spared  no  pains 
to  realise  my  conception  of  the  part.  The  es 
sential  thing  about  a  successful  peerage,  I 
take  it,  is  that  it  should  be  invested,  for  ordi 
nary  eyes,  with  a  glamour  of  unreality.  A 
Baron  should  be  perceptibly  romantic.  A 
Viscount,  if  he  respects  his  station  should 


278  March  Hares. 

quite  envelope  himself  in  the  mists  of  the 
improbable.  As  for  an  Earl,  he  should  live 
frankly  in  fairyland.  My  imagination  does 
not  run  to  Marquises  and  Dukes,  but  I  think  I 
may  say  I  have  grasped  the  ideal  of  an  Earl." 

"  The  true  ideal  of  an  Earl,"  interposed 
Drumpipes,  with  inspiration,  "  is  never  to  let 
victuals  get  cold." 

Mosscrop  smiled  and  nodded.  "  Only  a 
minute  more,"  he  said.  "  I  spoke  about  fairy 
land.  I  have  been  under  its  spell  all  this 
week.  I  have  committed  myself  to  its  charm 
for  the  rest  of  my  days.  When  you  return  to 
London  this  evening,  northward,  it  is  Archie 
who  will  drive  you.  I  go  southward  to  the 
Loire  country  instead,  under  the  magic  of  the 
enchantment  which  beckons  and  guides  and 
propels  me,  all  in  one.  To  quit  riddles,  good 
people,  you  will  notice  that  there  is  a  fifth 
place  laid  here  before  us.  To  connect  this 
fact  with  the  toast,  the  seat  is  waiting  for  my 
Queen.  This  is  Sherry,  decanted  from  the 
'Anchor's'  oldest  bin.  I  suggest  to  you  the 
filling  of  your  glasses." 


March  Hares.  279 

He  moved  toward  the  door  as  he  spoke, 
opened  it,  and  turned  to  the  others,  with  Ves- 
talia  on  his  arm. 

"  Mr.  Skinner,"  he  said  gently.  "  "We  crave 
your  approbation  for  what  we  have  done.  We 
were  married  by  the  registrar  of  St.  Dunstan's 
at  ten  o'clock  this  morning,  and  your  niece 
came  on  here  direct  by  train,  bringing  her 
luggage  and  my  own,  which  I  thank  God  de 
voutly  will  always  travel  together  in  future. 
We  love  each  other  very,  very  much." 

There  fell  here  upon  the  masculine  vision 
the  spectacle  of  two  women  entwined  in  each 
other's  arms,  and  of  two  beautiful  heads,  one 
raven-black,  one  glowing  like  light  through 
clouded  amber,  bent  tenderly  together.  The 
sound  of  little  moans  proceeded  from  this 
swaying,  interlocked  group,  and  then  of  kisses 
and  of  subdued  ecstatic  sobbing  laughter. 

Lord  Drumpipes,  staring  vacantly  from 
these  women  to  his  boyhood  friend,  gulped  his 
sherry  in  an  absent-minded  way.  David,  in 
rapid  whispers,  outlined  meanwhile  the  situa 
tion  to  his  bewildered  ear. 


280  March  Hares. 

"  Eh  !  "  he  called  out  at  last.  "  It  is  the 
same  lassie?  The  yellow-haired  one?  The 
one  who  smashed  my  moosie  ?  " 

"  Shut  up,  you  loon ! "  growled  David 
fiercely,  under  his  breath.  "  Is  this  the  time 
to  blab  about  such  things  ?  /  kicked  your 
your  old  cow  into  splinters,  and  I'll  serve  the 
rest  of  the  idiotic  show  the  same  way  if  you 
mention  the  word  '  moose.'  Chuck  it,  man ! 
That's  a  thing  for  the  girls  to  tell  each  other 
a  year  hence,  perhaps.  Have  some  delicacy 
about  you  !  "  He  turned  to  Mr.  Skinner,  who 
stood  as  one  petrified,  his  gaze  riveted  upon 
the  young  women. 

"  I've  been  explaining  to  my  friend,  Lord 
Drumpipes,"  David  said,  lifting  his  voice, "  the 
romantic  nature  of  my  acquaintance  with  your 
niece,  my  wife.  I  think  you  have  been  told 
about  it." 

Mr.  Skinner  shifted  his  glance  to  the 
speaker.  "  To  some  extent — to  some  extent," 
he  murmured  weakly.  "  It  has  taken  me 
greatly  by  surprise.  I  scarcely  know " 

David  had  advanced,  and  was  holding  out 


March  H<wes.  281 

his  hand,  with  a  confident,  masterful  sort  of 
smile. 

"  I  suppose  it's  all  right,"  the  old  gentle 
man  said,  sending  confused,  appealing  glances 
toward  his  inattentive  daughter.  "Adele 
seems  not  to  object — I  take  it  for  granted 
that " 

Adele  lifted  her  head,  and  drew  a  protect 
ing  arm  round  Vestalia.  "Hold  up  your 
chin,"  she  whispered,  audibly.  "  They're 
nothing  to  be  frightened  of.  You  know 
everybody  except  your  cousin  Archie,  and  he's 
only  to  be  feared  by  creatures  who  can't  shoot 
back." 

The  bride,  nestling  against  the  other's 
shoulder,  raised  a  luminous  face,  and  looked 
about  her  with  a  smile  of  frank  happiness. 
"  Frightened  ?"  she  queried,  and  then  shook 
her  fair  head  joyously  in  answer. 

The  waiter  came  in  with  the  tureen. 


THE   END. 


I 


